Prius advertising - Love it, hate it, haven't seen it?

[studyingprius]

I am from Australia, and i have found that since actively looking for Prius advertising in print media, i can't find any!!!
I've seen some banner ads (which i thought were pretty average!) and plenty of magazine articles reviewing the Prius II, but where have all the print ads gone!?!
What do YOU think about how much advertising is being done for the Prius? Where are you from?
What do you think about the ads you've seen? I read one review disgusted with the ads that were giving a "free fuel sample" in a pink plastic sachet - the writer was completely livid that this stuff would probably end up as landfill. Anyone seen this campaign?

AND i would LOVE if someone directed some advertising material my way, i am getting desperate! Please PM/email me if you can help out. I would really, really appreciate it.

[KMO]

We're getting quite a few print and Internet ads in the UK. The print ones are usually smallish teasers though - often just pictures of a START button with the caption "Prius - START now". No TV ads that I've noticed.

Honda's heavily plugging IMA though - loads of oblique "Wouldn't it be nice if things knew when they weren't being used" TV adverts. I'd been seeing those for months before I started investigating the Prius and realised what Honda were trying to sell

I guess Honda are finding the Civic IMA a bit harder to shift. Not surprising, I'd say, given that it's only available as an ugly 4-door saloon, rather than hatchback like the rest of the Civic range.

Still, it's only a 2-3 month order wait for the Prius in the UK, though.

Not a lot of point advertising the Prius at the moment, given that they're producing them as fast as they can. I suppose they may want to increase awareness outside the US ready for when they can ramp production up. In the UK most people will never have seen one. I've never seen either an old or new Prius - I'm still waiting for my local dealer to get one in so I can check it out.

[aarons12]

here in the u.s., why would they spend ANY money advertising something that they can't produce nearly enough of to meet the current demand?

the publicity the car has gotten for all it's innovations and so on has been more than enough. advertising it would just be a waste of money.

[studyingprius]

yeah i feel for you guys on endless waiting lists!!
With the launch of the new model, toyota spent 5 mil. late last year and i suspect that the advertising was effective enough to completely back off now..
damn it.

i've talked my parents into going to the dealer to order one fantastic.

[john1701a]

> i would LOVE if someone directed some advertising material my way

Just go to the "Ad Scans" pages on my website (under "Prius Stuff"). There's a collection of printed advertisements available for downloading.

[jamarimutt]

A 30 second TV ad has been airing daily in Puerto Rico. It shows a letter E and a red obelisque-like pointer trying to meet each other while running around in several cities of the world. The background song, in Spanish, by a famous Latin American singer, is about a guy who badly misses his girlfriend. The two symbols represent a gasoline gauge which never reaches empty (thus the pointer and the E can't meet each other). The ad ends with the 500 miles per tank estimate.

[jkash]

There is a new Prius ad in this months Sierra magazine called Room enough to expand your mind. It is a two page ad with the rear hatch open. I will see if I can get it scanned and post the pics.

Jeff

[htmlspinnr]

I've seen Prius and Hybrid Synergy Drive type ads in many automotive and scientific magazines. Just recently saw another TV spot on Prius on Discovery or a similar channel. They're still out there.

[eg239]

Other than Toyota's print ads (none of them specific to the Prius, just the company's environmental commitment), I haven't seen an ad for the Prius.

I did, however, hear a terrible little jingle back in November. It was a garage-y surf-y sounding band singing about the fuel economy and then Steve Guttenburg? Anyone else remember that?

[DaveinOlyWA]

the only ad ive seen for Prius is a short blurb on techTV . all the commercials are documentary style and they conveinently dont mention that fact that there are no car available and 20,000 waiting to get theirs.