[imagesource: YouTube / Toyota South Africa]

Congrats on turning 60, Toyota South Africa.

Here’s a scathing assessment of your birthday advert to celebrate.

I don’t even own a car so I don’t have a dog in this fight before you Fortuner owners come for me.

Instead, the critique comes via branding expert Andy Rice, who spoke to 702’s Bruce Whitfield about the company’s anniversary campaign.

Before we delve into what Rice had to say let’s watch the advert for ourselves:

I’m unmoved but I will award a point for avoiding the use of the words “unprecedented” and “trying”.

As Rice points out, it looks like an attempt to emulate Apple’s iconic Here’s to the Crazy Ones campaign with limited success.

“It is so generic, it is so predictive. Toyota have had about 60 years to get this right – it’s a worthwhile milestone but this is a very poor, third-rate copy of some famous Apple advertisements using the same kind of language and corporate delivery. But it’s not written with even a fraction of the skill…”

Damn. He went in hard.

Oh, it gets worse:

“A company like Toyota after 60 years certainly shouldn’t be languishing in the low-budget space… This doesn’t make it look like a confident leader… looks like someone knocked it out quickly over the weekend with stock footage.”

Happy birthday.

Thoughts and prayers with the team behind the advert.

[source:702]