Toyota Pulls Japanese Olympics Ads As Games Come Under Fire

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

The 2021 Summer Olympics, set to be held in Tokyo starting Friday, are proving to be quite unpopular, at least in Japan. And apparently, Toyota has taken notice and pulled the plug on its planned local advertising during the Games.

We can see why the Games might not be popular, at least with the locals. There are concerns that even without spectators, the gathering of nations to play sports could lead to the spread of the coronavirus. That’s on top of the usual reasons why the Olympics piss people off — the corruption, the crass commercialism, the congestion that usually happens when tourists descend on the host city (though who knows how many will show during a pandemic), et cetera.

“The Olympics is becoming an event that has not gained the public’s understanding,” a Toyota spokesperson said, according to Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper. Toyota senior leadership won’t attend the Opening Ceremonies.

Toyota is one of the Olympics’ biggest sponsors, and all told, Japanese industry has poured $3 billion into the Games.

The carmaker had plans to do on-site marketing, too, but those were scuttled when spectators were barred from attending the Games.

The Games are getting the side-eye from locals because despite promises to keep the Olympic Village COVID-free, there have been over two dozen positive tests so far, and at least one athlete seems to have left the Village, against regulations.

The Games were already delayed a year, and the drive for the almighty dollar kept them from being held back one more year, even if that would’ve been more prudent from a public-health perspective.

Toyota, for its part, saw which way the winds were blowing, so to speak, and decided it would rather not be associated with the Games this go-round.

[Image: Toyota]

Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • Gasser Gasser on Jul 19, 2021

    The L.A. Olympics in 1984 made money. How??? They used the dorms at UCLA and USC and didn’t build new ones. They used the UCLA and USC swimming facilities, As I recall they built a new diving pool and a velodrome at USC. For equestrian events, they used already built facilities at Coto de Caza. They were also run by a guy, Peter Uberoff, who knew what he was doing. He got a lot of corporate sponsors. The profit from the games was spent on sports programs for inner city youth, among other things.

    • Art Vandelay Art Vandelay on Jul 19, 2021

      I think even the Atlanta games were profitable. Of course if they had built a bunch of venues and then banned fans from showing up it likely would have come out differently.

  • Inside Looking Out Inside Looking Out on Jul 19, 2021

    Will Americans participate under official American flag? I know that American flag become controversial symbol of systemic racism. On the other hand Russians are not allowed to participate under Russian national flag we all proud of. Now waiting for Lui_BC's tirades about Russian trolls.

    • See 22 previous
    • Lou_BC Lou_BC on Jul 22, 2021

      @Old_WRX I'm not complaining. You make comments about “These modern “liberals” have no sense of loyalty or gratitude” You need to explain. Loyalty to whom? Gratitude… for what specifically? “They regularly turn on their History?” Examples?..at least three. What’s their history? A man needs to be able to explain and defend their comments and beliefs. If you can't do that it's a poor reflection of the man and the beliefs.

  • Bd2 Imagine if Hyundai were to develop this, and TTAC were being taxied around naked for their "Drive Notes"
  • Cprescott I have to laugh at speed limits. Apparently 95% of the people don't think it applies to them. Here in the states, there should be a fee paid at the time of registration renewal that will allow you to run 10 mph over the limit without a ticket (but you could be pulled over and have your belt checked, etc) Add $150 to the cost of registration and those who feel like they want to go commando, have the cost of speeding 10 over the limit to be no less than $500.
  • 3-On-The-Tree I do 80 on I-10 and cars are always passing me pulling away doing well over 100.
  • Fed65767768 So Quebec...the only Canadian province still stuck at 100 km/h. Then again, considering how bad the roads are in this poorly run province, I'm not sure many drivers would be willing to drive much faster.
  • SCE to AUX Seems Canadians don't care about fuel economy, same as in the US.
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