Brands Gone Mild

Tiger Woods and Toyota have a lot in common. With both iconic brands now scathed by scandal, the man and the manufacturer’s shift into crisis management may have come too late.

Tiger's Tale:
Tiger’s mea culpa and sniffles on cue rivaled an ineffective press release soaked in “spin speak.” Whether parking his pecker in various spaces is a real affliction or nothing more than a convenient PR-engineered excuse remains unknown. To the surprise of few, the golfer sounded a lot like the same pre-beat down Tiger, barking up a potential sponsor’s money tree. Unarguably, immediacy has its advantages and time will reveal if arrogance is harder to kick than sexual addiction.

Say It Ain’t So, Toyo
Amid reports suggesting that Toyota sacrificed consumer safety for corporate profits, the Asian suits seem powerless to put the brakes on reputational disrepair. However, don’t expect Toyota’s H.A.I.C. to be KFC chicken-grilled this week in D.C. because politics will likely invade the procedural marinade.

Driven to protect jobs afforded by Toyota’s strong U.S. plant presence, some politicians have been urged to tread lightly when Akio Toyoda takes congressional stage. According to the WSJ, Texas’ Rick Perry engaged his gubernatorial gears, offering these consumer-insensitive comments to Representative Henry Cuellar: “Hey, Henry, will you please look at the other side of the issue? They have been a good company…Let’s not pummel Toyota.” Seemingly, economics trump safety so Texas motorists aren’t in good hands with Perry at the helm.

Although being bamboozled by a trusted brand never feels good, of all things tugging at Toyota and Lexus owners like diminished market value and compromised safety, auto theft, thankfully, isn’t one of them.

For more than a tip of Toyota's political iceberg, their long lobbying trail is traced here: http://www.newser.com/story/81471/toyota-armed-with-lobbyists-for-dc-showdown.html