New Toyota Commercial: People Person, Toyota Prius Family

Congratulations, Toyota, you've earned a place in the top 10 creepiest commercials of all time. You can look forward to that article sometime in the future.

Awesome Prius c, but too bad the production version will look nothing like the concept.

 

Reminded me of a Clive Barker short story.
And an episode of Family Guy.

So....not creeped out here.

 

Still a little creeped. There's a Jim Henson style to it, although not meaning the amusing funny Jim Henson style. I'm tying to find a 30 yr. old video of one of Henson's giant walking people that might have inspired this commercial.

Found this. The Heartless Giant.

 

Yeah not a fan of this or the other Prius commercials that had flowers, sun, earth, trees made of people. It feels creepy to me. Reminds me of some of those thrillers like The Devil's Advocate where the background pictures moved and were made of people.

 

Well, this one was memorable but definitely weird. I do like the simple message at the end though.

I like that one better.

Too bad they weren't able to come up with something as great and hilarious as Swagger Wagon (see below) which apparently they were responsible for.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql-N3F1FhW4]SWAGGER WAGON - YouTube[/ame]

 

I created a post yesterday that got lost in the ether. But it seems clear to me that somebody at Toyota likes Blue Man Group/Mummenschanz like imagery. I think this ad will get attention, and I think it ultimately get's a series of messages about Prius out...so it's NOT a failure. But I think it's off-beat style gains it's attention by creeping most people out. So?

I'd like to see Toyota get back to creative and entertaining advertising. It almost seems like they don't know exactly "how" they want to promote Prius. So we ended up with Theatre troops dressed as bushes and trees, swaying to folk music, and now a giant Human...made of humans...

 

Doug's response to the complaints about the hippie-dippie tree and cloud people commercial was that they wanted a commercial that (1) would stand out and get attention, and (2) deliver their message that a new model Prius had arrived. I called it a fail on both counts, since no matter how innovative it was, it was not really grabby and was a bit of a turn off, due to the cartoonish look and feel. It also didn't clearly communicate its point. You had to already know there was a new model out to understand what they were trying to say.

In this case, yes it is bizarre, maybe even creepy, but it does grab your attention and does clearly communicate its message at the end.

It's also worth remembering that some of the best liked (i.e., entertaining) commercials are not successful, because people don't remember the product or brand being advertised.

 

It probably was intended to be slightly creepy, a little bit controversial to generate conversations/discussions(we are talking about it), and maybe, be even picked up by the news on a slow news day!

 

I saw a picture of the giant's face before I realized it was a video, and sent it to my family to enjoy since we all like creative clever arts. As for the video -- I should have realized the giant would decompose at the end given the overarching message of the Prius as part of a sustainable ecology, but I may have grimaced a little during that part.

This commercial will go over well in Europe and Japan; America is still firmly in the high heels and cleavage messaging meme.

 

This is a short video about how the commercial was made [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qOCto-X6FE]Making of Toyota Prius Family People Person - YouTube[/ame]

 

Very cool. Thanks!

Makes me appreciate the spot a lot more. Will be interesting to see how well the commercial is received in the Prius' biggest market though.

 

Interestingly, one of my female friends (who's an engineer and been in my Prius numerous times before) posted this on FB "awesome commercial, super fun! =) this is the making of it.. but definitely look up and watch the Prius 2011 commercial itself to see what I am talking about" and included a link to the making of.

Despite the backlash here and some on the Prius Facebook page, perhaps some people do like it.

 

I love it! But then I liked the Blueman group too.

Bob Wilson