Saatchi to Toyota: Stop Advertising During the Recall

(MoneyWatch)  Saatchi & Saatchi chairman Bob Seelert has said he thinks Toyota (TM) should stop advertising until it gets its house in order, but the company says it will ignore its agency's advice and continue to advertise. Such a public disconnect on strategy between a senior agency official and a global client is extremely unusual.

It's also just the latest in a string of incidents in which Saatchi has triggered odd publicity for the car company it is supposed to be promoting. (It aired a shockingly sexist online video for the Yaris in December; misappropriated images from Flickr for a web site in November; and got sued over a hoax campaign in October.) The agency just uploaded a new recall ad to the web a day ago:

Seelert, the éminence grise of Saatchi, was asked about Toyota's recall of cars with accelerator problems by the Sydney Morning Herald:

Our stance with them is that in this environment it doesn't make any sense to do any advertising. In effect they are sitting back thinking about how they are going to fix cars and once it is in place (we'll think about) how we can help relaunch their position.

My own feeling is that they as a company, or us as their agency, should not do something reactive -- to say there is a problem in the US that (Australians) might have heard about is in some way creating a problem.

Toyota, however, said it had no plans to go dark until the recall storm had passed:

Absolutely not. We continue to advertise in all major media.

The irony here is that although Saatchi has stumbled on this account in the past, Seelert in this case is right and the client is wrong.

Related:

• Toyota Slammed for Sexist Yaris Video; It's Saatchi's 3rd Gaffe on the Business
• Toyota and Saatchi Used Images From Flickr Without Permission
• Saatchi Sued Over "Terror Marketing Campaign" for Toyota