Supper Mom
In Toyota’s new, lip quivering, teary eyed commercial for the holidays, they focused on thanking the heroes both in our homes and those in health care. With 2020 being a hard year for healthcare workers and families who need more support, Toyota took both these struggling demographics into consideration for their 2020 holiday commercial. The commercial uses advertising’s biggest tools to sell products: people’s emotions.
A single mom runs out of her work at a hospital to go pick up her kids (she is late). She thanks the kids for waiting, and they drive off in their bright red Toyota. She then leaves her kids at a cafe while the owner tells the mom “relax I got it,” ensuring that her kids are well taken care of while the mom runs off in her scrubs. In the next scene, the mom is carrying a Christmas tree for her and her family and putting it on the top of the roof of the car. This is typically a male dominated job around the holidays, ( an example of cultural transmission). Next, we see the mom thanking the grandma for watching her kids while she once again leaves for her long day of work at the hospital. Finally, it seems all the mom’s hard work has been paid off because when she gets in the car we see a handmade card from her kids saying “super mom.” The mom is tearing up as she reads the card and looks at the pictures her kids drew of her at the nurses station, holding up the christmas tree, and a picture of all of them together. The kids then run towards their mom all in a group hug. The words “lets thank the heroes we count on” pop up on the screen followed by a Toyota logo. Again, Toyota is using one of the most famous rules in advertising, that people’s emotions are valuable when selling a product. Especially mothers’ emotions, also they use the fear that single mothers may feel, like they are not good enough for their children. It’s clear Toyota wants to be known as a family car, but they want to be known as a family car for evey kind of family.
This ad uses Freud’s psychotherapy ideas and plays on the fear that single moms and/or working moms are not good enough for their kids, and they don’t have time for their kids. Toyota used appeals like need to nurture because the mom cares for her kids even with a busy work schedule. Also, it shows the need to associate because they are a family and they all belong together even if it’s not your typical family. Toyota uses the USP that their cars are family cars, and are always reliable to get you to your loved ones. Car commercials like to sell an idea more than a car so Toyota can be selling it’s the only family car on the market, even though there’s many others.
Car companies love to center their demographics around families, especially more common cars like Toyota. In this ad it’s clear they are targeting females, lower middle class, single moms, hard working people, and moms devoted to their family. Those are all enforcement of the norms. For example having moms being the ones to do the pickup from school. However, there are moments where Toyota uses cultural transmissions. For example, when the mom was holding the Christmas tree over her head to put on top of the car. That is typically the dad’s role to do all the heavy lifting in the family.
In conclusion, Toyota wants to sell to single mothers and families the idea that a Toyota car is a family car, and if you drive a Toyota you are able to conquer anything. This ad can inspire newly single moms or give children a reminder to be grateful for the parents they have. Especially with Santa watching around this time of year.
