The Toyota Scion's Got Personality; We're Relatively Anti-Social

Despite sales numbers indicating folks in their golden years are snapping up cars like the Scion, Toyota's entry-level threesome of the xA, xB, and xtC are still branding thesmelves for the whipper-snappers. Toyota's asked its Pasadena-based ad agency, Interpolls, to put together their online campaign — featuring all sorts of interactivity and personalization to show off the Scion's "personality" — the many customization options that can, but never actually are, installed on your car. The ads will be runing on all sorts of sites befitting octagenarians: Atom Films, GameSpot, ClubPlanet, Savvy, UrbanRacer and of course...the one place we always think of when we think of retirees...Whyville. One of these days, an automaker's going to realize it should be marketing to the people who actually buy its cars — rather than merely who it wished was buying its cars. Of course, then we'd get ads like the following:

— "Ford: I like Toby Keith, and hate all of you for being different. Unless you accept Jesus as your personal savior, then I'll find another reason to hate you."
— "Lincoln: Because I'm old."
— "Toyota Scion: Because I'm old and want to be hip so bad I can taste it."
— "The Chrysler 300: I'm white...but in this — I feel black."
— "Volkswagen Jetta: I obviously have no ego. I mean, have you seen my car?"
— "Subaru: Despite my very small penis, I think I can go faster than you — and in AWD."
— "H2: I'm black and live in the city. Of course I need a tank."
— "H3: Because I'm a 5'3" MILF of three and live in an exurb. Of course I need a tank."
— "El Camino: "Business in the front, party in the back"

Scion Campaign Has Personality-Driven Ads [ClickZ]

Related:
Carmakers Misjudge the Youth Market [internal]