Unrealistic reaction

Here in the United States, there has been a television advertisement on the major national networks for Toyota. It features their promotion for the "Toyotathon of Toyotathons."

Throughout the commercial, a guy in a tan jacket is going around town placing a sticker that reads "of Toyotathons" on all the already-existing signs and billboards that read "Toyotathon." The point, presumably, is to advertise that this sale is going to be the mother of all sales for Toyota products.

Well, at the very end of the commercial, there is a shot of a woman reading a newspaper, and she's holding it up in front of her face. On the back page of the newspaper is a print ad with the bold and easily-legible title: "Toyotathon". The guy in the tan jacket briskly places one of his stickers directly on to her newspaper, then quickly disappears out of the camera shot, ostensibly to walk away quickly to continue his task of placing stickers elsewhere. And the woman reacts by turning the back page toward her and then tilting her head to see what was placed on her newspaper. And nothing else!

My point is this: what kind of reaction is this??? Does this not seem unnatural to you? If someone abruptly touched something that I was holding in my hands and then walked away quickly, I'd look first to see who this stranger was, then I'd quickly look at what was done to the newspaper in my hands, and then I'd look again to get a good look at the suspect.

This woman's reaction was so nonchalant to the point of being completely incredible. And this, in turn, takes away from the veracity of the commercial and, thus, the consumer's trust in this company and its products. It should have come as no surprise, then, that while listening to NPR Morning Report this morning, it was reported that Toyota is forecasting negative growth (an oxymoron) in 2009, the first time this will happen in the company's 70 year history.

And it all started with a stupid commercial.