1.13.2011

Why is Toyota marking to kids??

I must say, I *hate* the current batch of Toyota Highlander car commercials. You know, the one with the little kid in the black leather jacket talking about how cool the car is.

 

It bothers me that it seems Toyota is now marketing their cars towards kids, saying that if your parents drive an older car or a car that isn't like this, well, they're lame and you shouldn't want to be seen in that car - if you want to be cool, you need your parents to buy our car!

How low is that, Toyota? Especially given the current economy, not every parent (or person for that matter) can rush out to get a brand spankin' new $27,000 car. So you create the problem where the kid thinks the parents are lame and don't want to be seen in the fully-functional family car and put the pressure on the parent to give in and buy this vehicle.

I guess from a marketing standpoint, it is a good stratgey- market to the kid, telling them what's "cool" in the world of cars and get them to put the pressure on mom and dad, but still... it pisses me off a bit that they would stoop to that level to sell their cars - personally, I wanna smack the kid in the commercial upside the head and tell him that if he wants the "cool" Highlander, he can spend his own $27,000 on it. I guess it's one way parents can teach their kids about want vs need vs what you can afford - do they want a cool car to ride around in, sure, but do they need it? No. Can the family afford it? Depends on your income in this current economy.

What are your thoughts on this batch of commercials?
By marking their vehicles toward kids has Toyota gone too far?

2 comments:

  1. It is weird, I'll give you that. I don't think it's so much marketing to kids specifically as it is families. (Of course that means kids are involved.) It just seems to be something that is interesting to mothers and fathers, it just catches there attention. It just comes off as annoying to me though and if kids see it, I guess they may think that their parents aren't "cool."

    I always prefer a car commercial to just show the vehicle, make the thing look awesome, throw in some great music, and tell me the facts.

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  2. I have to agree that the commercials are really annoying, at least. I didn't think of it quite the way you did, but I did think it was dumb that they were essentially marketing to people who can't buy cars. Not to mention the fact that it really has nothing to do with cars at all. And yes, the kid is very annoying.

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What's your thoughts?