Prius Ads

When a manufacturer produces an item they wish to sell, they are frequently attempting to appeal to more than one type of buyer. This is especially the case when dealing with a high cost item such as a car. In addition to being a significant expenditure, for many people in our society what vehicle they drive is a reflection of their personality and how they wish to be viewed by others. I would like to look at two different ads for the Toyota Prius. Because these are commercials made for television, they have a wider selection of means to target an audience than is available in a print ad. Primarily, of course, are the images we see on the screen. Second, we are impacted by the words spoken by the narrator. Lastly is the music chosen for the background, which can have more influence than we may realize. Those elements must all work together and in a very short amount of time to produce the response of dissatisfaction with one’s current circumstances and a desire for the car as the solution to that dissatisfaction. Both ads are 30 seconds long and, unlike a print ad, when viewed in the intended medium of television there is no stopping to take a closer look at something that catches the eye.

The Toyota Prius “Harmony” ad is the older of the two, first released around May 2009. The initial impression from this ad is that it is targeted at an older group, mainly the baby boomers. The ad has a very “hippie” atmosphere to it. The commercial opens with the car journeying out of the city and into the country, getting back to nature. The surroundings start out virtually colorless, the landscape is white or gray as if buried in snow. As the Prius travels through the countryside, its headlights are equated with the sunrise a...

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...hing I noticed was that neither ad made any mention of costs. The vast majority of car commercials talk about sale prices, bargain packages, or super low interest rates. At the very least they usually refer to a starting price somewhere. Neither of these ads refer to costs in any way; no reference to the price of the vehicle, how the price compares to similar vehicles, or potential savings in fuel costs. These ads are completely about fulfilling a perceived need, and assume that if the need exists the price is of no importance. From that perspective it can be inferred that the target group is composed of buyers who are likely financially stable and that may have as much bearing on who responds to the ads as anything else. I think the overall, happy-go-lucky feeling of both ads allows Toyota to pursue a new generation of buyers without alienating the old ones.