2018 is coming to an end, and you’d think big companies would hire a marketing team that is aware that sexism belongs to the 20th century and that we’ve moved on since then. Turned out, however, that Toyota did not receive this memo.
The Japanese automotive manufacturer is easily one of the most recognized automotive brands, mostly due to their high quality as well as diversity in products. Toyota Egypt’s marketing team, however, decided to use this said diversity against their own selves and managed to launch the most sexist campaign you could possibly imagine.
Toyota Fortuner’s new campaign excludes half of their audience using the slogan of “Toyota Fortuner. Made for men.” and tagline of “The 21st Century Man knows how to liberate his power.”
While I might not particularly be the main target audience for Toyota Fortuner, because…well…how do I phrase this? I’m poor. If I were to be rich, however, this is a car I would want to own. But according to their marketing team, my gender will not allow me to purchase this vehicle.
I have previously seen the billboards of the campaign, and did, in fact, consider writing about it. Especially given the fact that Toyota is well known for their sexist campaigns, globally. Try googling “Toyota sexist,” get some popcorn and enjoy the ridiculous campaigns.
Egyptians are not stupid, and we became more vocal about our opinions, and we stand up for sexism. The campaign started on Facebook, and people had their opinions.
You would think their social media team would try to come up with any damage control, but no. They proved to be as incompetent as their marketing team.
I’m not sure if the person responsible for their social media was trying to be witty, or what exactly he was thinking when he wrote this reply, but he shows that as a brand, they are struggling to understand their audience’s feedback.
Even when a woman asked “What about women?”, their reply was “Anyone can drive a man’s car.” Again, failing to understand their audience’s problem.
You don’t need to be a marketing professional to find out what’s wrong with this campaign, and what’s even worse is their social media responses. This campaign is a total flop in all aspects.
We have nothing against the brand; in fact, I am personally a huge fan of Toyota and the Toyota Fortuner in particular. We just found it impossible to remain silent about the visibly sexist campaign, and to be completely honest, for not giving a hard time to their marketing and social media teams for not doing the slightest effort to fix the issue.
We’ll wait and see if anything happens regarding the campaign, or at least if there are any changes in the way the company responds to their audience.
