Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. has asked its ad agency to delete a scene from an animated short promoting its new Scion sports coupe because of perceived drug use by one of the characters.
The decision to delete the scene came after Advertising Age Magazine questioned Toyota about it, saying it appeared to be a reference to the use of peyote, a source of mescaline, Scion spokesperson Ming-Jou Chen said.
“We didn’t have any customer complaints or any media inquiries [about drug references] other than AdAge,” Chen said. “When AdAge saw the commercial, they interpreted it that we were somehow encouraging or promoting drug use, which of course we would never do.”
In the Tina Returns episode, scenes were removed that showed a character apparently hallucinating after eating cactus.
Toyota’s agency, ATTIK, began running the short last week to support the launch of Scion’s new sports coupe. The short, created by Sydney-based sub-contractor Ambience, appears at wanttC.com. San Francisco-based ATTIK declined comment.
Four animated episodic shorts entitled “303 Caliber” had been created featuring animated characters Tina, Ratchet, Glock and Random on a cross-country road trip in their Scion. In the questionable scene, the characters were stranded in the desert without food or water.
Chen said the decision to cut two seconds from the cartoon was done to prevent any further misunderstanding. She noted that the deleted scene was not central to the story line and did not interrupt the flow.
Chen said her first impression of the scene was the character was hallucinating because of lack of food and water and being stranded in the desert.
“That was how I interpreted it,” Chen said. “But maybe that’s because I didn’t know what peyote cactus was.”
The characters are also featured on lenticular postcards being passed out with Scion-branded temporary tattoos by street teams in major U.S. cities. Mobile billboards, posters, radio, cinema and TV spots and other new campaign elements support.
The campaign supports the launch of the 2005 tC sports coupe which will be available at dealerships across the nation by the end of June, and the TV spots have debuted on broadcast television and in theaters nationwide over the past three weeks.
Scion is the new line of vehicles from Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., which ATTIK serves as creative AOR. Zenith Media handles media on the Scion account.
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