Could Toyota Become Be Nation's No. 1 'Scapegoat'

Washington DC February 22, 2007; The AIADA newsletter reported that Toyota is preparing for a backlash even as it counts down its move to eclipse General Motors as the world's largest automaker within the next year.

According to Advertising Age, Toyota, the Japanese automaker which directly employs 40,000 people in the U.S., has seen a spotlight shined on its U.S. business in the past year.

The Detroit Free Press recently obtained an internal report by Seiichi Sudo, president of North American Toyota Engineering and Manufacturing, that outlined potential hazards from, among other things, the carmaker's use of foreign-made parts.

"Toyota will be a scapegoat ... and we need to position ourselves to respond to corporate image attacks," Mr. Sudo said in the report.

In January, to counter any anti-Toyota sentiment spread by Detroit, Toyota created the corporate post of group VP-strategic research, planning, and corporate communications at Toyota Motor North America in New York, and tapped Steve Sturm, 55, a seasoned marketer at Toyota, to fill the post.

"My job is to manage and work on the image of the company, to promote the image and the relationship of our company to society," he explained.