Scion Ad Suffers Scary-Ass Irony Failure: “United by Individuality”

42 Comments on “ Scion Ad Suffers Scary-Ass Irony Failure: “United by Individuality” ”

• monsenor :
  August 9th, 2008 at 10:44 am
  
  

  Is that Chairman Mao under the hoodie?
  In anycase it’s probally advisable to refrain from dissent or be critical here…Non-Believers will be marched to a reeducation facilty until they except the enlightened message of the Great Hooded One seen in the clip.

• Paul Niedermeyer :
  August 9th, 2008 at 11:21 am
  
  

  ah, the angst of youth.

  And it’s only ok, as long as you use “official” customizing parts. I know, because my son scoffs at the red rims on my xB.

• Mrb00st :
  August 9th, 2008 at 11:55 am
  
  

  that is just creepy. There’s nothing “interesting” about a Scion. Silly advertisers, don’t you all know they are Toyotas? C’mon.

• ferrarimanf355 :
  August 9th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
  
  

  That’s not as bad as the xD “sheeple” ads…

• UnclePete :
  August 9th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
  
  

  This is one of the dumber ads out there. IMHO the death of the original Xb killed anything interesting about Scion for me.

  I was subjected to it on the big screen yesterday, waiting for the movie my son and I went to to start. (I hate all the commercial crap at the movies, but that’s a rant for another day!)

• ZoomZoom :
  August 9th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
  
  

  I saw it at the movie too. Even as a teenager, I had enough individualism that I would have never driven someplace just to be there with people who had cars like mine.

  The music was good in that ad, and that’s all I will say about it.

• carguy :
  August 9th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
  
  

  That’s a real “Life of Brian Moment”:

  Brian: “You’re all individuals”
  Crowd: “We’re all individuals!”
  Guy at the back: “I’m not”

• Dynamic88 :
  August 9th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
  
  

  First – RF, I admire your work ethic, but I thought you were going to start taking weekends off? (Not that I have any room to talk, having just arrived home from work).

  Second- I hardly watch TV at all, and PBS if I do, so I never see car commercials. I can’t decide if this one is superficially stupid, or stupid to the core. I notice that when I go to Rod/Custom shows, the owners talk about how each car is an individual expression of the owner’s “vision”. What I see is – fiberglass A body with 350/350TH, painted red, fiberglass A body with 350/350TH, painted yellow, fiberglass A body with 350/350TH, in blue….. That which unites them in commonality makes them individuals.

• Mark MacInnis :
  August 9th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
  
  

  Oxymoron alert…. united group of individuals?

• folkdancer :
  August 9th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
  
  

  I have bought my 3rd Toyota and like their reliability, after owning 3 VW lemons, but I cringe in embarrassment almost every time I see a Toyota ad.

  Does Toyota hire a Japanese ad agency that thinks Americans are dumb?

• seldomawake :
  August 9th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
  
  

  Surely someone must have realized..?

  Boggles the mind.

• shaker :
  August 9th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
  
  

  I AM CONVINCED

• hwyhobo :
  August 9th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
  
  

  Judging from the ad, Toyota is after heretofore Honda’s “Civic with a fartcan” market.

• ZCline :
  August 9th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
  
  

  Judging from the ad, Toyota is after heretofore Honda’s “Civic with a fartcan” market.

  And Honda would probably be glad if you took them.

• hwyhobo :
  August 9th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
  
  

  And Honda would probably be glad if you took them.

  I would be most glad if that market moved out of my neighborhood. I don’t care who takes them.

• seabrjim :
  August 9th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
  
  

  Amen hwyhobo!

• Rix :
  August 9th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
  
  

  We are all individuals. Just like everyone else. This is definitely a WTF are they thinking ad for me, but then this is targetted more towards the Facebook generation I suppose. I’m not supposed to get it.

• ferrarimanf355 :
  August 9th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
  
  

  I saw this commercial in the theaters before Pineapple Express. Commence the “you must be stoned to even consider a Scion” jokes.

• quasimondo :
  August 9th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
  
  

  This is such a ripoff of the ‘Civic Nation’ commercial.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUxuMHHJxCs

• BlueEr03 :
  August 9th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
  
  

  but then this is targetted more towards the Facebook generation I suppose. I’m not supposed to get it.

  I am a member of the Facebook generation and I don’t get it either. Of course, I don’t get the appeal of Scion/Toyota’s to the person who wants to be an individual. You can’t be an individual and own a corolla/xB, as there are thousands of other people exactly like you, and thinking the same way as you.

• JuniorMint :
  August 9th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
  
  

  The REAL irony here is that most Scion owners hate one another.

  xA owners are bitter because their car was never the cool one…
  …original xB owners are pissed because our car WAS the cool one, and got axed anyway…
  …gen 2 xB owners get hacked off because gen 1 owners make fun of them…
  …xD drivers are bitter because they realized two weeks after signing the paperwork they should have bought a fit…
  …and tC drivers are all 16 and hate EVERYONE.

  We must be the only car company on the planet where all the model owners despise one another. =6

• Bruce Banner :
  August 10th, 2008 at 12:13 am
  
  

  @quasimondo – exactly. But the Toyota/Scion version leaves me feeling embarrassed to have watched it. I’m going to wash my eyeballs now.

• cmus :
  August 10th, 2008 at 12:24 am
  
  

  I still enjoy my 2004 xB. I am pretty well outside the original scion target market. (I was over 30 when I bought it)

  Scion *did* lower the average age of Toyota buyers in the US for the first couple of years…by attracting low 30-somethings.

  The 2nd generation xB appears to me to be a giant (heh heh) design failure stemming from a complete lack of understanding of why the gen 1 was selling. It should probably be used in future strategic management textbooks as a case study in how to screw up a good thing. Maybe they can put it right next to the Honda-dropping-the-CRX case study.

  To me, Scion previously was a marketing failure with a good product. Now, they’re *just* a marketing failure, as this commercial does an excellent job of displaying.

• jconli1 :
  August 10th, 2008 at 1:26 am
  
  

  oddly, that exact approach has done wonders for Harley Davidson.

• ferrarimanf355 :
  August 10th, 2008 at 1:33 am
  
  

  jconli1, Harley Davidson has been around for over a century, so they know what works. Besides, have you seen their parts and accessories catalog? That thing is thicker than a phone book…

• storminvormin :
  August 10th, 2008 at 4:11 am
  
  

  We’re all individuals? Dats tyte yo!!

  It’s designed to appeal to the guys who bought automatic 4-door Civics and promptly put rims and kitty-cannons on them to be individuals.

• dgduris :
  August 10th, 2008 at 8:30 am
  
  

  Makes me think of the recent 3-Series commercial:

  “…we didn’t set out to start a religion…”

  Scion should hope to do 1/4 as well.

• Michael Ayoub :
  August 10th, 2008 at 8:55 am
  
  

  I’m 17. I’m in high school. I should love Scions! But… I don’t. I despise them. I saw that Scion commercial at the movie theater a couple days ago, and a few people in the crowd yelled, “YEAH!!” after the hooded man started talking. Stupid Sciontologists. You’re not different.

• John Horner :
  August 10th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
  
  

  “I want to be unique and different, just like my friends” seems to pass as deep thinking with a certain fraction of the young set.

• jconli1 :
  August 10th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
  
  

  @F355…

  “have you seen their P&A catalog?”.

  My point exactly – getting people to believe they’re joining a culture (yet asserting individuality) simply by buying things out of a brand catalog.

  I’m not necessarily defending Scion or slamming H-D here, but I think proclaiming individuality while defining yourself by a brand is just damn sad all the way around… but its as American as Calvin pissing on things, and certainly not relegated to the younger generations.

• JuniorMint :
  August 10th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
  
  

  As a side note, I don’t know how they can continue to use the first-gen xB as their Big Square Brand Symbol after axing replacing it with the bloated piece of crap they’re selling now.

• westhighgoalie :
  August 10th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
  
  

  this is a good commercial, if only Scion was a good car, like subaru. Subaru’s are indestructible I have 310,000 miles on mine and the only regular maintenance is oil changes.

  Plus Scion doesn’t offer a (wrx type car, fast and affordable) car that would bring in business from their target market.

• f8 :
  August 11th, 2008 at 1:18 am
  
  

  came in to point out that Sion ripped off Honda’s “Civic Nation”, discovered that someone else remembers those ads too

  This is a rough breakdown of Toyota’s car lineup:

  Corolla
  Corolla Large (Camry)
  Corolla Small (Yaris sedan)
  Corolla XS (Yaris coupe)
  Corolla XL (Avalon)
  Corolla Convertible (Solara)
  Corolla Wagon (Matrix)

  And this is Scion:

  Corolla Ugly (xD)
  Corolla Boxy (xB)
  Corolla Coupe (tC)

• the duke :
  August 11th, 2008 at 2:05 am
  
  

  “Scion *did* lower the average age of Toyota buyers in the US for the first couple of years…by attracting low 30-somethings…To me, Scion previously was a marketing failure with a good product.”*

  Which brings us to this truth: good product doesn’t need marketed. Yes, you must get the message of its existence out, but after that, let it be. How many ads do you see for Accords, compared to Malibu’s? The new Malibu, isn’t as bad as it was, but the old one was so bad that Marketing is in hyper-drive.

  I think Robert made the point in the first “Sciontology” piece: the xB was a good product, and would have sold itself no matter what badge they put on it – Toyota could have brought back the Toyopet name (well, maybe not). The Fit is a great example for this – Honda can’t ship enough of ‘em to the states, and its badged a Honda, not a Hooka.

  *For the life of me, I can’t figure out how to make the quote tags work

• folkdancer :
  August 11th, 2008 at 2:13 am
  
  

  This is a rough breakdown of Toyota’s car lineup:

  Corolla
  Corolla Large (Camry)

  ha,ha, very funny (sarcasm)

  There is a big difference between the Corolla and Camry. The Corolla has cheap seats that hurt my back after even a short ride. The Camry has very nice seats that support my lower back and I can drive all day without pain.

  When you get old you start to pay attention to the details like seats and noise.

• f8 :
  August 11th, 2008 at 2:26 am
  
  

  Right, sorry. Let me update that to “Corolla for Old People (Camry)”. Hope this helps

• z31 :
  August 11th, 2008 at 10:14 am
  
  

  folkdancer :
  When you get old you start to pay attention to the details like seats and noise. give up on life and buy a camry

  sorry, couldn’t help it :p

• dolo54 :
  August 11th, 2008 at 10:24 am
  
  

  Here’s the fantastic speech from The Warriors that they were trying to copy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYd2deSmrnE

  This was in the theaters for Batman, everybody was snickering when it came on. Some groaning as well.

• Diary of a Mad Natural Historian » Go Steam Venture! :
  August 11th, 2008 at 10:27 am
  
  

  [...] what you will about the Scion line (I understand many are put off by the officialitude of the Scion factory mod parts) the fact remains that what they are trying to [...]

• dolo54 :
  August 11th, 2008 at 10:28 am
  
  

  @ carguy: thanks for reminding me to put that on my netflix. haven’t seen that in years.

• ferrarimanf355 :
  August 11th, 2008 at 10:30 am
  
  

  dolo54,

  Or you could play the video game. Yes, there’s a video game- and a pretty damn good one, too- for the PS2, Xbox and PSP.

• dauer962 :
  August 20th, 2008 at 1:43 am
  
  

  you can’t even call it oxymoronic—obviously it’s a play on words or supposed to sound paradoxical but somehow profound. (i think the irony part comes in where by being so “invididualistic” these people are all the same on a different level…i would just call them self-obsessed punks…i think the other irony part is that this culture must be so self-aware by now…cmon this stuff is so 2fast2furious already several times over)

  what actually bothered/angered/amused/intrigued me most is making the dork at the microphone some “urban dude” amalgam.

  what race is he (nondescript/hard to tell…)? he’s probably not a college kid whose parents bought him the car. he probably has a part-time job. maybe community college. he enunciates some words normally and then gets all “urban” for some others. so yeah. i think it’s the demographic targeting and implications it makes that bothers me.

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