As I predicted in my previous blog post, Toyota broke a new print ad campaign today to respond to the fear and uncertainty caused by its unprecedented global recall and factory stoppage. Those drastic actions were necessitated by the very real danger caused by potentially sticky accelerator pedals in 8 Toyota models, affecting some 9 million vehicles worldwide.

So, how did Toyota do in this first major communication, nearly a week after the recall was announced and the crisis began? Not so great, in my view.

First, the Toyota ads are really kind of late. Second, they don’t say much of substance. The main headline of the ad reads:

A temporary pause. To put you first.

Subhead:

Why we’ve temporarily stopped some of our plants:

The ads mainly focus on why Toyota had to close the plants, rather than being totally about what people need to do to protect themselves if they have one of the affected vehicles. It’s almost like Toyota was trying to protect its sales channel more than inform and educate seriously concerned owners and dealers about the problem that caused the factory closings in the first place.

I don’t know about you, but I think that is the wrong communications strategy for Toyota. I read online that the company recently hired big time New York strategic communications firm Robinson, Lerer & Montgomery to manage this crisis, and it frankly shows in Toyota’s actions so far (including this ad).

RLM is a fine PR and crisis communications agency, but firms like that are mainly about managing their clients’ risk. They are much less concerned with actually serving consumers’ interests and protecting the overall public good through communications built on true transparency, education and engagement. Sorry to be so cynical, but that is how the big time strategic communications business usually works. I am just sorry to see Toyota going down that well trodden path when they should be striving to be more open, not less.

After the above outlined headlines, the new Toyota ad offers a bit of copy of that acknowledges that "in rare cases, sticking accelerator pedals have occurred in some of our vehicles." The ad finally directs you to the Toyota.com website for more information. Once you get there, you then have to navigate down to the lower left of the site to find the a button that takes you to the recall information.

The whole process is just not as transparent and open as it could and should be.

Just yesterday (Saturday the 30th) I ran into a neighbor who has a brand new Toyota Tundra pick up truck, which is included in the recall. I asked him if he had received any communications whatsoever either from his dealer, or Toyota directly, since the recall broke about a week ago. He said "none." Not a call, not an email, not a form letter. Nothing.

No wonder there have been plenty of stories in the past few days reporting both dealer and owner complaints about feeling "left in the dark" with respect to this crisis. They just don’t feel like Toyota is providing them the timely information and reassurance they so desperately need amidst this historically serious auto recall and safety crisis.

After all that, I think Toyota could have done much better then today’s print ad that mostly focused on why the company closed plants.

Toyota’s crisis response so far: I reluctantly give it a D.

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