It's funny, when I saw this ad, my first reaction was that it was some seriously cloying made-up horseshit that I wasn't buying. Looks like I may have been dead wrong. There's an accusation that it's some seriously cloying truth. But stolen truth.
According to out pals over at Courthouse News Service, author Eric Dahl wrote a book in 2013 called BB King's Lucille and the Loves Before Her, which Amazon describes as
... chronicles the musician's rise from the instruments of his youth to the personalized Gibson Lucilles at the height of his career, the book shines a spotlight on the people and tools behind B.B. King s lengthy career. Inspired by the author s purchase of a pawnshop guitar, this publication takes the reader to every corner of B.B. King s instrumental travels, from the first single string Diddley Bow to the people who maintain and create the guitars and amplifiers he uses.
That part about the pawnshop guitar is referencing the first three chapters of the book, where Dahl chronicles his finding of a Gibson Lucille guitar in a Vegas pawnshop that was determined to have belonged to BB King, and his eventual return of the guitar to King, who reciprocated by giving him another autographed guitar. If you managed to sit through that Toyota ad, this plot should seem pretty similar.
Sure, Dahl has been replaced with a pretty young woman, Vegas has become an auctioned storage unit, and whatever Dahl drove has become a 2015 Toyota Camry, but that story is pretty much the same.
Dahl maintains that Gibson Guitar employees were aware of his book and story, and were consulted by Toyota's ad agency for the production of the commercial. As his story is part of his copyrighted book, and as he never gave permission for Toyota to use the story, he feels he has the rights to the story, and is is suing, demanding:
Dahl seeks any profits that can be attributed to the ad, statutory and general damages from defendants Toyota Motor Sales USA, advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi North America and ad producer Smuggler, an injunction, attorney's fees and costs.
I'm no lawyer, of course, but it does sure seem like Toyota used his story without permission. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.
Now, if Toyota really wants to give the Camry the edge it needs, I'm happy to let them repurpose the story of how I once found GG Allin's filthy jockstrap wedged under the carpet of an AMC Pacer I was considering buying outside of Barstow. Toyota can contact me for the rest of the story.
(Thanks, GeorgeK52!)