What if the world’s biggest car maker by sales admitted and apologised for its mistakes of the past and committed to become a company able to provide clean mobility and fit for the climate emergency?
The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned a ‘Born to Roam’ SUV advert for breaching rules on social responsibility on Wednesday, 22 November 2023.
The car company responsible, Toyota, made adverts that “presented and condoned the use of vehicles in a manner that disregarded their impact on nature and the environment,” ruled ASA. ” As a result, they had not been prepared with a sense of responsibility to society.”
Obstructing
The same company was recently revealed to have lobbied the UK government to weaken weaken and delay the switch to cleaner electric vehicles, planned as part of the fight against air pollution and to hit climate targets.
As revealed in detail in an earlier report, Dangerous Driving, the same car company placed its bet on polluting cars, planning to produce millions of fossil fuelled internal combustion engine (ICE) cars.
While many car companies are finally transitioning to full battery electric vehicles, this car company is not only lagging behind, but revelations above and elsewhere, show it is actively obstructing the shift to cleaner vehicles, with disastrous effects for people and the planet. At the same time, it uses high profile sports sponsorships, such as of the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics, to promote itself misleadingly as environmentally responsible.
Apologies
But the Badvertising campaign has stepped in to help the company reinvent itself. We imagined what a serious leap forward for a car maker would look like.
How can they account for their polluting past, and communicate that shift? That’s why we now present TOYNOCA® to update TOYOTA, with a full corporate press release, an open apology letter, a new corporate ‘Vision 2024’ brochure and a video endorsement of the new move by 2012 Olympic gold medallist, Etienne Stott.
