Ad Standards finds in favour of Toyota for ‘brainless buffoons’ claim

A complaint concerning two Toyota TV commercials has been dismissed by Ad Standards, the authority formerly known as the Advertising Standards Bureau.

The complainant expressed concern that each commercial – one for the Toyota Corolla and the other for the Toyota RAV4 – evoked an anti-male sentiment.

In the Corolla commercial, the scenario shows the young woman ignoring satellite navigation commands to enjoy driving the car. Her male passenger spills coffee in his lap as she makes a turn when the navigation system prompts her to head straight at a roundabout. The complainant objected to the passenger spilling his coffee and expressing confusion at the driver paying no attention to the navigation voice prompts.

In the scenario for the RAV4 commercial, a woman is driving and a man in the front passenger seat is asleep. He awakes with a start when the vehicle passes over a cattle grid and cries out. The voice-over makes it clear that the driver is ‘Mum’ and the passenger was supposed to remain awake and keep her company. There’s a hint of karmic retribution in his sudden awakening.

The claimant, submitting the objection in much the same wording for both commercials, wrote:

“The advertisement portrays young men in a negative light. The advertisment makes them out to be weak, stupid and brainless bufoons.

“The portrayal of men in this advertisement does nothing to help build the confidence, self esteem or worth of young men in our society today.”

In the case of the Corolla commercial, Toyota responded as follows:

“Toyota does not believe that the Advertisement engages in vilification of a particular gender, but simply uses humour to demonstrate the features of the vehicle. The driver and passengers could have been any other combination of genders and relationships, including as the woman as the passenger and the man as the driver in the same scenario depicted in the Advertisement. In fact, the passenger is depicted as super vigilant as he notices that the driver is ignoring the satellite navigation and therefore the antithesis of “weak, stupid or a brainless buffoon”.

For the RAV4 commercial, this was Toyota’s response:

“The Advertisement suggests that the RAV4 is so comfortable and quiet, that passengers can’t help but doze off after a day or weekend of recreation, even if they intended to stay awake. It is not necessarily a reflection of the male gender being a weaker gender, but of the vehicle being so quiet and comfortable.”

Ad Standards found in favour of Toyota in both cases, citing this rationale for the RAV4 commercial:

“The Panel considered that the woman’s action of waking the man was a depiction of light-hearted horseplay between a couple. The Panel noted that the woman’s action was a reaction to the man having broken his promise to stay awake, and considered that this action was not taken because of his gender. The Panel considered that the man was not seen to receive unfair or less favourable treatment because of his gender.”

And this was the panel’s assessment of the Corolla commercial:

“The Panel noted that the relationship between the man and the woman was not clear, however, as the woman was driving she was shown to be in control of where the vehicle was headed. The Panel noted that the male passenger was seen to be confused by the driver ignoring the directions of the GPS and choosing to go in other directions. The Panel considered that he was portrayed as confused and irritated, however was not depicted in a way which ridiculed or humiliated him.”