Cute Mom Won't Astroturf for Toyota. Toyota, By The Way, Owes Us A $10 Gift Card
They say blogging doesn’t pay, but in this case, it pays. When the incomparable Bertel Schmitt wrote his Toyota exoneration story, none of us knew that he was just one quick sex-change operation away from scoring a $10 Amazon gift card. It’s true. A marketing organization with no connection to Toyota (chuckle) has decided to comp “mommybloggers” free gift cards for getting the word out about Toyota’s exoneration.
Details, and a photo of the mommyblogger who blew the whistle on the whole sordid operation, after the jump.
In her rather interesting article on the subject, Crissy Kight reveals that she was offered ten bucks to “spread the word” about the recent NHTSA Toyota findings. Here’s the incriminating email:
Hello!
A new opportunity! Another chance to score a $10.00 Amazon gift card for the mommy bloggers who help out.
There was a big report released about Toyota, by the NHTSA and NASA, stating that there was no electronic flaw found, which was originally assumed to be the cause of all the recalls with the Priuses last year. It actually turned out to be pretty much “user error” that was causing the accelerator to stick.
It’s a big deal for Toyota since this has affected their reputation heavily and they had a lot of negative stigma around their brand as of late, and we’re helping to spread the positive news:
I need you to:
Tiffany Lewis
Mrs. Kight has, as of this morning, 33,723 followers. That would mean that Toyota would be paying about three-hundredths of a cent for every “eyeball” they would reach by compensating her. Compare that to the GM blogger junket to Detroit, where GM incurred costs I estimate to be in the two-thousand-dollar range per person to bring in professional Tweeters with between one and six thousand followers… and it’s easy to see that Toyota still knows how to control costs better than the General.
Unfortunately for Toyota, however, Mrs. Kight is considerably more ethical than the GM pawns — that, or she’s holding out for more cash. She blew the plot wide open on her blog, creating a PR nightmare. In the aftermath, the aforementioned Tiffany Lewis chose to fall on her sword in public and claim that her Toyota-PR program was a completely independent effort brought about by her, ahem, personal love of Toyotas. Smart move, Tiffany. You’re the G. Gordon Liddy of PR people. Call me.
Not even Malcolm X could enjoy chickens coming home to roost the way I’m enjoying watching this little plot backfire. This news came right after I got a Gchat message from a fellow journalist warning me that one of the GM-trip bloggers was bragging that I’ve been “blacklisted” by General Motors for “going too far” with the “My Fair Lady” article. Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive the public by Astroturfing auto-show news or grassroots Toyota support!
Normally we could wrap up the story here, but there are two things left to consider. The first is that TTAC eagerly reported the news that Miss Lewis was so eager for Mrs. Kight to “report”, and we have even more readers than Crissy does. So we’ll be expecting our Amazon gift card in the mail.
Secondly, it turns out that this “influential thirty-year-old mother” lives in central Ohio. Using the always-reliable MS Paint, I’ve taken the libery of modifying her personal photo so our readers can see how cute she is without being annoyed by the excessively emo, hipsterish, vacuous fellow standing next to her. Any resemblance between the “Impact Carbon Air Draft” in the photo and my personal helmet is strictly deliberate.
…and DELORTED! at the request of the bloggess in question. If you want to see what she looks like, you’ll have to toss her advertisers a click.
More by Jack Baruth
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Jay-zuss. Toyota gets trashed by the media tools of tort lawyers, working in harmony with the DOT-owned Government Motors, over a RIDICULOUS sham safety claim...and then they get hammered AGAIN trying to respond in kind? I can imagine just how befuddled the polite Japanese who run Toyota marketing are becoming...as the rules seem to shift like quicksand. This is hardly news. Only a fewel reads an obscure low-traffic blog and expects to find vetted, unvarnished Truth. People do with they do for REASONS. It might be for pay, pay by a promoting sponsor (like the buff books); or it might be to settle scores or stir up trouble. This whole episode smells like what makes the grass green; and it's getting smellier. Now the government, no longer a disinterested party, is going to run its GM competitors out of the market. And what happens then? Why, we get the same high-quality build that State-owned automobile plants ALWAYS deliver! Yugo! Trabant! Lada! Leyland! Ain't the future grand? Cripes, leave it alone. I don't turn to mommybloggers for expert advice on car purchases.
I still rue the day when the 19th amendment commenced the decline of USA society in general by allowing females to nullify the male vote. "ARE YOU SERIOUS you withered Old Coot, you disgusting misogynist and who is assuredly chock-full of "issues" of all types and who, if I had tome, assuredly worthy of every emotion-laden negative label ever created or can be concocted." Well... mostly. Gulp. I had ulterior motives for creating the Females as Property Movement before dismantling it and the "viral seeding" I utilized to promulgate it; hoping to profit from the venture eventually, such as being invited to Oprah's TV babe-babbling blather show and other venues where I would be paid for my appearance. Silly females could have had an easy target to lambaste and vent their excess emotionality but.... NO!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dizzy dames. Such simpletons. Emotion driven with little ability in rational thought. Yeah, exceptions exist but not enough. Just one Disgruntled Old Coot Opinion based upon decades of life experiences and extensive non-fiction readings. HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I DID write that exceptions exist!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The few I have met WERE impressive but the HUGE number of airheads overwhelmed their non-airheaded brethren. Your mileage will likely vary.