‘Southeast Toyota Distributors’, a consortium of 173 Toyota and Lexus dealers has told their ad agency to pull all commercials from every ABC affiliated station in the Southeast region of the United States.
ABCNews.com Blotter Blog says the dealer group’s ad agency informed affiliated stations the ads were canceled because of “excessive” coverage of Toyota’s gas pedal problems. The dealers instructed their ad agency to divert the advertising to other local affiliates. ABCNews quotes a station manager as saying that the move is designed “as punishment for the reporting,”
According to their website, Southeast Toyota Distributors is the world’s largest independent distributor of Toyota and Scion automobiles. They represent over 173 dealers in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina. The company’s headquarters are in Deerfield Beach, FL in the same building as JM Lexus and accounts for about 20% of Toyota’s sales in the United States.
That’s right SE Toyota, show them *&*$# at ABC by hitting them where it hurts, the pocketbook. Maybe if Toyota hadn’t have tried to become the World’s Leading Auto manufacturer by hurrily building inferior products, this wouldn;t have happened.
Sounds to me like babies crying over spilt milk.
LOL
Toyota even has a new slogan for their cars…. “Theres No Stopping Us Now “
After driving Toyotas for the last 15 years, I’m loving my new Honda.
That’s weak. Consumer and informational blackmail at it’s best. There is a lack of class and compassion when you’re running scared. It’s a shot over ships bow. What are they afraid of? They did’nt have the guts to pull all their adds from all media. If you make a mistake just man up and get it done.
Informational blackmail? What?
Advertisers have the right to spend their money where they want to, even if it is Toyota.
Why would you put ads on a network that is showing a large number of negative segments about your company? How effective could those ads be if they appear right after an ABC news segment? Toyota messed up so they should be obligated to buying ads on WPLG?
And, it’s not as though the media doesn’t over hype stories for their own financial gain. Anyone remember the Audi sudden acceleration media scare?
Toyota only has itself to blame. But killing the company off in the media and not allowing them to make it right will only cost more American jobs.
If u have been watch other news sources other than ABC, they are reporting on the same thing. This is an unnecessary boycott. No matter where the Toyota dealers turn to advertise, that station will have reported about the problems. I haven’t been following ABC’s coverage but NBC and CNN have reported what the LA Times reported months ago.
To call it blackmail is a bit too much.
What I’m afraid of….is someone with one of those Toyotas tail gating my 72 Pinto…….now that could be a real problem !!!!!!