Toyota facing the music over B.B. King Camry ad

News broke toward the end of last year that admitted-crook Toyota and its ad agency Saatchi and Saatchi North America are accused of copyright infringement associated with a Camry ad. Never mind the ad neglecting to mention NASA physicist Henning Leidecker warning of increased risk of unintended acceleration in '02-'06 Camrys. The Toyota gang struck a sour note by deriving an ad campaign from someone's book about B.B. King without first getting the author's permission. And a federal judge has now ruled that the lawsuit can proceed, overruling a "challenge" blabbered out by the Coverup King. Always bear in mind that an Associated Press investigation found that Toyota indulges in some pretty sleazy legal tactics when sued.

This isn't the first time a Toyota ad campaign has made the wrong kinda headlines. Not too long ago, advertising the "Toyota Way" literally terrorized a consumer after Saatchi came up with what's gotta be the most ridiculous idea ever when it comes to spreadin' the word about a product.

What really shows Toyota's true colors when it comes to who owns written material is the Coverup King's harassment of whistleblower Betsy Benjaminson. The unemployed, single-mother-of-four continues to be subjected to pricey intimidation tactics by a gang of Toyota's big-shot lawyers because Benjaminson dared to divulge information she felt the public needed to know regarding Toyota's problems with unintended acceleration. Toyota seems to think it's okay to use privileged information from someone's book for an advertising campaign, but it's not okay for someone to divulge "privileged Toyota information" that electrical engineers such as the exceptionally well-credentialed Dr. Antony Anderson believe has safety implications for the public. In fact, Dr. Anderson's study on unintended acceleration has been published in the prestigious IEEE Access. Go figure.

Really, folks. Who trusts the advertising of an admitted crook in the first place?

Update 3/16/2015 - Repeated efforts have been unsuccessful in getting this post to appear in standard format on Facebook. My remarks and the link itself are all that shows. I'll monitor re potential censorship issues.
Update 4/23/2015 - The suit has now been settled. Confidentially, of course. Keeping things quiet is Toyota's trademark.

"Slick" ad campaign backfires on Toyota

When I saw that Toyota's ad agency, Saatchi and Saatchi, was involved in marketing the new "family" of Glitch-mobiles ("Priuses" they like to call 'em), I got to wonderin' if Saatchi is part of Toyota's problem. Tryin' to recall (if you'll pardon the pun) a story that came out some time ago, I did a Google search, and there it was. Plenty of reason to be alarmed about the kinda folks Toyota depends on for advertising. You know. So-called "professionals" as opposed to customers.   

Toyota's ad agency was sending a woman anonymous e-mails with threatening overtones, etc., as part of a so-called marketing scheme for the Matrix. I won't belabor the absurdity. Suffice it to say that Toyota seems to have a way of terrorizing people. Startin' 2011 off with yet another month of disappointing sales, apparently Toyota's philosophy goes something like this: Big ad agencies, they got glitz. Pomp. And circumstance. As for customers? All they got is some old-fashioned thing called "word of mouth."

Wonder what the Toyota team will come up with next.

Update 2/3/2011 - Regarding the above link, Reuters censored my comment about Toyota's disappointing sales for January.  Such censorship is also alive and well at ABC News.

Update 9/13/2011 - The victim of Toyota's absurd marketing scheme filed a $10 million lawsuit, and an appeals court has ruled that the suit can go forward.