How creepy do you find this? I saw it for the first time last night at the Transformers premiere and was unsettled.
It’s very unsettling. I was expecting something like that ad where a cat gets decapitated by a car…but this is more in the realm of David Lynch or David Cronenberg bizarre. Are they going to show it on TV as well? Poor Sheeple.
OK, that didn’t make any sense whatsoever.
Umm…weird. I don’t find it so much creepy as bizarre, from an advertising standpoint. It’s like the antihero, only more so. The consumers of the product are supposed to be the underground devils who decapitate people - sorry, sheeple? It was obviously going for edgy, but I think it missed and went right on past to offensive. (Not offensive like I’m hurt or pissed off, but offensive like I wouldn’t want to be part of that group.) And it seemed to be trying a little too hard to be Tim Burtonesque.
But then again, I’m old (32) and a woman, probably not in the target demographic at all, so what do I know?
I love the message: Be an individual just like us!
I thought it was an interesting commercial, but ultimately failed just because you couldn’t even tell it was a car commercial, let alone a commercial for a Toyota Scion.
I’m a 26 year old male. I still found it disturbing.
Also, anyone else notice that the Deviants/Toyota customers are apparently blind (large "X"s on their faces)? What should we read into this?
That Scions are…unlovely?
I’m guessing that was a trial piece, never intended for broadcast, perhaps not not even requested by Toyota. Some odd and disturbing ads get created that way, showing the ad agency’s creativity and ability to think outside the box.
At least that’s what I’m hoping, as that is some messed up commercial.
I’m with you here. I think the animation’s great, but I don’t think this ad will sell many cars.
A bit like the Sid Vicious/Kurt Cobain/etc. ads featuring the dead rockers wearing Doc Martens up in heaven? Doc Martens apparently never intended to release them as an ad campaign at all.
The ads don’t even make sense. People usually like to buy products because the commercial makes the user look really hip or awesome (PC/Mac ads, anyone?), but the little deviants are just as creepy as the sheeple. Actually, more so. Unless they are trying to tap the socially deviant market. I think I’m going with the trial piece answer.
This was played during the opening night of Transformers at the movie theater.
I don’t think the Volkswagen terrorist ad would be released that way… 
Not as creepy as this. (Quizno’s rats)
REMOVED**
Well, there goes that theory. Yikes, I can’t see that appealing to the folks I know who drive a Scion.
Saw the ad before Die Hard. Definitely disturbing. Of course, I think the Scions are some of the most awful looking cars ever created, so I’m not exactly unbiased. This ad definitely fits with the rest of that brand’s push to be “urban” and “edgy” in a really stupid way.
My thoughts exactly. As if the message weren’t already paradoxical enough, it’s coming from the mouth of Toyota. If there’s a car manufacturer more guilty of catering to “sheeple” than Toyota, I’d love to know which one it is …
I agree, heh. They also, all look the same and have disturbing anti-social tendencies. At least the sheeple follow societal rules, and don’t break the law.
I’d like to go on record as saying that I own a Scion, and do not, in fact, decapitate and skin sheep, people, or sheeple! 