Video: Toyota apologizes for Prius ad after it appears on Digg

Filed under: Hybrid, Toyota

Recently, we wrote about a Prius ad that took a shot at Fresno, California. Other blogs wrote about the ad, which only aired on the East coast but did make it to Digg's front page. Residents of Fresno seem to think their town is not a low budget, tourist stop, ghost town as described in the ad. Complaints made it as high as Senator Dianne Feinstein. Dianne then complained in a letter to Shige Hayakawa, president of Toyota North America, that she felt "profound disappointment with the current Toyota Prius advertising campaign which gratuitously insults the city of Fresno."

Just two days later, the ad was pulled and Toyota sent a letter of apology to Fresno Mayor Alan Autry that said "please accept our deepest apology for this serious error in judgment and we hope you will accept our apology for this transgression." Toyota has also implemented a series of controls so this kind of thing won't happen again. Fresno Council Member Henry T. Perea says he's "willing to forgive Toyota if they located a Prius plant here in Fresno." According to ABC 30 News, Toyota is now considering Fresno as a location for one of its new plants which would mean thousands for jobs for Fresno. That would help Fresno out, because I hear the place is a low budget, tourist stop, ghost town :D

All joking aside, what can we take away from this examples of blogs, YouTube and of course, Digg having a considerable impact?

[Source: ABC 30 News]

 

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