Stupid PR Tricks: Toyota Dealers Recall Ads, to Punish ABC

Toyota has been making a show of contrition for the acceleration problem that led to a massive recall of several of its models, buying a humbled Super Bowl ad and apologizing publicly. But one group of its dealers is working hard to blow any positive credit the company may have earned, pulling its ads from ABC stations to punish the network for supposedly too-tough coverage of the automaker’s runaway cars.

ABC News reports that the Southeast Toyota group ordered its ads pulled off ABC affiliates and moved to competitors, over the apparent objections of its ad agency, whose representative sent a chagrinned-sounding e-mail to local stations.

This is the last thing Toyota needs, and I can’t imagine why any genius in the dealer group thought that this would help their cause. The dealers, of course are free to spend their ad money wherever they want and for whatever reason. And people who care about companies not being able to bully their way out of bad news are free to, um, shift their own spending.

Glee Watch: NYADA, NYADA, NYADA

Spoilers for the season finale of Glee below:

One beef I often have with Glee episodes is that they move too fast, go in too many directions, try to cram in too much at once. You might say that about “Goodbye,” the season 3 finale, but in this case that approach seemed about right. It’s an episode about graduation, and graduation is something that, no matter how much you plan for and anticipate it, still goes too fast. Graduating is something you do, but in the moment it feels like something that happens to you, suddenly and all at once, like going over a waterfall.