Toyota Pulls Ads from ABC AffiliatesFebruary 9, 2010
 NEW YORK: ABC News says Toyota dealers in
five states have pulled commercials from local affiliates over qualms about
recall coverage. The news organization said an ad agency representing 173
Toyota dealerships told the affiliates last week that it was pulling ads due to
“excessive stories on Toyota issues.” The group was said to shift its buys to
non-ABC stations “as punishment” for the reports, led by ABC News chief
investigative correspondent, Brian Ross.
Ross started covering the issue last November in a series of stories that
predicated the recall. The ad agency involved is 22Squared of Atlanta, which
handles the accounts for Southeast Toyota that comprises dealerships in
Georgia, Alabama, Florida, South and North Carolina. The consortium of dealers
accounts for 20 percent of Toyota vehicles sold in the United States.
The car maker is consistently among the top spenders on TV advertising. It
ranked 13th among the top local advertisers for the third quarter of 2009,
spending more than $27 million, according to the Television Bureau of
Advertising. Toyota dealers associations collectively spent nearly $74 million
during the quarter, making them the top spot spender. By comparison, Verizon
spent nearly $60 million; Ford dealers spent $56.2 million, and AT&T spent
$55.6 million. Among the top 25 local spot spenders for 3Q09, 10 were car
makers and dealerships.
Toyota has thus far had to recall nearly 9 million vehicles because of sudden
acceleration problems. The latest recall involves 437,000 hybrid Prius and
Lexus HS250h models, while the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
is investigating complaints about braking and steering problems with 2009 and
2010 Corollas, reports indicate. Toyota officials are scheduled to appear
before a Congressional committee in late February to answer for the safety
issues and the company’s response.
Toyota’s initial corporate message blamed ill-fitting floor mats. Continued
push-back from Toyota drivers who had experienced sudden acceleration moved the
company to blame sticky gas pedals. However, the manufacturer of the gas pedal,
CTS Corp., is now
saying its foot-feed was found to stick only at low speeds, near idle.
Safety advocates have pointed to an electronic malfunction, but Toyota contends
otherwise.
Class-action lawsuits are coming out of the woodwork in the meantime. Coughlin
Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP of San Diego, Calif., filed one in U.S.
District Court for the Central District of California on behalf of
shareholders. Toyota’s American Deposit Receipts on the New York Stock Exchange
have dropped nearly $9, or 11 percent, year-to-date, but are actually up nearly
3 percent in today’s trading to nearly $75. Bernard M. Gross, p.C. of
Philadelphia filed a class-action suit on behalf of shareholders in U.S.
District Court for the Central District of California, western Division.
ABC News has a first-hand account of sudden acceleration from Kevin Haggerty of
Pittstown, N.J. (See “Toyota
Driver: ABC News Videos Helped Save My Life.”) -- Deborah D. McAdams
(Image by DCvision2006
| COMMENTS (4) | | 02/17/2010 | | I won't have anyone in my family set foot in a Toyota product with everyone dying in them. Toyota is mad they cant cover up the truth anymore. Too bad Toyota. Time to come clean. I would hope this sends a message to Honda and its airbag cover up problem. |
| | 02/12/2010 | | What I have yet to hear is how ABC's reporting is any different than all the other networks and cable news! The rest of them seem to be spending as much time as the rest. I have to ask if there's something else at play other than the reporting of the recalls. |
| | 02/09/2010 | | I heard about the pedal recall, but now a hybrid to think I had no idea it affected my NON toyota car good thing I found more info here www.carpedalrecall.com
searched for my make, model, year and found my car had been recalled so look out! it could save a life maybe yours
don't understand how serious or what the car pedal recall is about?
just watch this video at the end it also shows how to stop a out of control car very useful
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGe3EOJ-CMY |
| | 02/09/2010 | | I do think abc has been going hard at toyota, the large number of recalls are due to how many they sold, you don't hear them talking abolut ford recalling their cars last week and chevy colbot being recalled. I think all this is just to get the so called us made cars ahead, but little do people know is they to are not all made here and will also have the same recalls cause they get the same parts from the same people toyota does. also toyota has alot of jobs here and with all this poor media you are going to make them mad |
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