Commercial #3 Thread (reconstructed)

Appologies to all for the rant --

A badly made point that maybe they wanted the ad to appeal to women???

My thought is that the Prius has a totally unique place in the market. It isn't male or female - it is RIGHT. It is the next step in how all cars should be engineered. It makes it 'manly' to drive rationally and it offers nice-ities that appeal to women. I think the tone of the advertising should be completely different from previous car commercials - reflecting that this is a whole new way to think of a car.

Saw the #3 commercial last night and I liked that it focused on a feature, but maintained the flavor of the campaign.

Again, my appologies - and applogies for taking the thread off course. :redface:

 

It's up on YouTube at:

YouTube - ToyotaUSA's Channel

 

"a new depth of prius geekdom has been exposed"

I knew it was out of control when people started tracking their car-carrier ships. It's just a car.

 

It's not just a car my friend, it's a Prius!

 

I still think they could take several different tacks with the commercials, like GEICO commercials to hit those other demographics that don't like the current ones. Maybe something with comedy, which would be unlike anything that Toyota has done previously.

 

Arent we glad we all pre-ordered our 2010 Prius before it hits the main stream... My cousin already named my soon to be Prius the "Runabout Type-6" and for fun... add starfleet ranks to all my phone contacts for the bluetooth voice recognition. <sigh>

 

I like the commercial.
I think Toyota needs to diversify and include Prius commercials without the costume people also, and have variety and balance.

 

Cool!

 

I've already stated my opinion about the tone of these commercials so I'm going to try to avoid any further comment along those lines.

One thing I don't like about this commercial is while it does specifically show a "feature" of the New Prius, The Solar Roof and The Ventilation System. I don't think it show's it genuinely.

Keep in mind many, many people aren't as focused on Prius as Prius Chat people. They haven't been watching every feature video at Youtube, or pain stakingly awaiting the release. So I think for the uninitiatied this commercial is misleading. Again, because of it's unreal tone the imagery is of a HOT desert, and The Prius uses it's "magical" solar roof to cool itself into a singing oasis. Well, that makes for a "nice" commercial but isn't realistic to what the Solar Panel and The ventilation system actually is capable of doing.

Yes, the voice over does say "ventilation" but most people (not in the know) watching are going to be thinking "air conditioned" ventilation. If you put a real Solar Paneled Prius, in a Real Desert at 100 degrees, it would struggle to cool the interior to ambient surrounding tempature, which would be 100 degrees at the least. In other words, not an Oasis of Coolness.

I said, I'd avoid commenting on tone, but I guess I just can't. That's the problem with adopting such an idealistic, stylized advertising campaign. It creates an unreal enviroment, which ultimately is going to disappoint.

Which tagline is easier to live up to in reality?

The Hybrid Designed for Everyone

or

Harmony between Man, Nature and Machine

I like The Prius. But promoting it as a magical tool of Harmony between mankind, nature and machines is asking a little bit too much of even Hybrid Synergy Drive.

Toyota need to re-think, IMO.

 

I saw both the latest Prius commercial and the Honda Insight commercial last night on the hockey game. The Honda commercial is much more effective. They show young attractive people just having fun at the beach and emphasize the lower cost of the car. It effectively targets the mainstream. The Prius commerical is way off target if Toyota wants to make the Prius more mainstream. They should use young to middle aged people having fun. They should emphasize the high mileage and advanced technology as being really "cool". They should absolutely not emphasis the enviromental aspect because that appeals to maybe 10% of the population. Finally, they should use humor, which is the only thing about any commercial that could appeal to me. The current campaign of green nature sprites is totally misguided and counterproductive to establishing a mainstream appeal for the Prius. And yes, it does set a tone somewhere between teletubbies and a gay drag show, which is pretty far from having mainstream appeal.

 

There are two problems with people criticizing these commercials of Toyota:

1. The Harmony commercials were the top-rated commercials liked by people surveyed by Nielsen

Toyota Prius "Harmony" Commercial Most-Liked New Ad | PriusChat

2. Insight sales bombed, while Prius sales kept chugging along, which suggests the Insight commercial actually wasn't quite so effective.

Saying that, I'm still waiting for commercials that tout the ATP, because as we all know, tech geeks of all nature will flock to this product when they see how cool it is.

Another misconception by the public that has to be addressed is the size issue - people seem to think Prius are compact, small, clunky cars - when in reality, they are BIG inside and quite luxurious and comfortable.

C'mon Toyota, give us more techy ads!