The Prius Goes Plural, and Toyota Gets Wordly

I once told Bill Green, my podcastin' partner on AdVerve and publisher of Make the Logo Bigger, that I like a good car ad, and he quipped back, "Let me know when you find one!"

HAR. But I stand by what I said. Car ads are among the most common we see (beside the abjectly bland perfume ad), which is a blessing if you ever score one with a mildly open-minded client. Because they look the same and boast similar features, they're the perfect palette with which to experiment (with plen'y of airtime, natch!).

But to the point of this post: this ad for Toyota's fresh new fleet of Priusses (Prii, rather?)* is catchy as hell, and I favour anything that resembles a Sesame Street segment in style, spark and efficacy. (Come on. When was the last time you had a grammar lesson that made you do the metronome head-sway thing? And this is a very good grammar lesson!)

There are better car ads out there (this one made me weep like the Russians at Sputnik time). But the point is, a campaign is also a medium. Break out of its genre - stories told and retold, stories dead - and give it an appeal that draws from foreign lands, feels fresh to the eye and is easy to watch and rewatch.

BTYB the folks at Saatchi & Saatchi, LA. And they didn't stop there: they're doing a whole series in the same spirit, dubbed "Wordliness" and starring James Lipton. Many may uncomfortably remember him as Warden Gentles from Arrested Development.

You can watch all the videos at the Prius Projects site. The most recent features one MC Flossary:


"An unexpected treasure chest of poetry."

It is true that things get wack around the time Gentles Lipton starts rapping and the flute man comes out, but this guy's out of his mind. And it's delightful!

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*If you wondered what a Prius, plural, actually is, apparently there was an online vote between mid-January and the present time. "Prii" won.