Toyota To Break Comedic Ads Aimed At NASCAR Fans

Toyota To Launch Comedic Campaign Later This Month

Toyota has a “humorous campaign breaking this month online and on national TV” during NASCAR races, according to Jean Halliday of AD AGE. The campaign, via Saatchi & Saatchi, L.A., features Toyota’s fictional “Department of Fan Operations,” which is touted in a trailer at Toyota.com/pitpass. The department’s mission is to “enhance the fan experience, sometimes with absurd solutions.” The first of ten one-minute Web-based episodes breaks Sunday, the same day as three national 30-second TV spots.  The ads feature actors who “ad-lib the ways Toyota helps NASCAR fans get closer to the action.” One 15-second teaser video, “Fan-Dangler,” shows a man flying over a racetrack in an “amusement-park-type ride.” Toyota Motor Sales USA Corporate Manager of Marketing Communications Kim McCullough said that fans will be able to “vote or comment on their favorite webisodes and suggest ways the fictional fan department can bring them closer to the action” (AD AGE, 9/10 issue).

UNGER: Toyota Motorsports Manager Les Unger said of what a Nextel Cup win would be worth for Toyota, “I don’t know that anyone anymore can translate a [single] win or being in competition to an immediate sale that follows doing well on the race track. I think it’s something that happens over time, as you build a greater awareness with the fan base, and they see that you’re in the sport for the long haul” ("On the Money," CNBC, 9/12).