Two Different Takes On Advertising While Under Media Scrutiny
Good news or bad news? When do you stop and start your advertising to contradict “news” messages?
For Toyota Motor Sales, the answer — right now, anyway — is to stop advertising, first at Southeastern TV stations and now at some Northeastern TV stations.
A couple of months ago the Toyota dealers association in the Southeast thought that it wasn't getting a fair break from ABC News, which continues to cast a hard eye on the car company and the sudden-acceleration problems of some of its cars. So the group withheld ad dollars from those local ABC stations.
Now, the Greater New York Toyota Dealer Association is getting into the act, pulling back some $5 million dollars from TV stations in its markets, including WABC-TV in New York.
The underlying message is that car dealer associations obviously don't believe in the separation of church and state — advertising sales and journalism. Another message: They don't want to reward any part of a media company's activities.