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Friday, November 7, 2008
'Zero' no hero for Toyota's profitability

When I heard yesterday that Toyota Motor Co. is projecting its biggest decline in annual earnings in 18 years, I wasn’t surprised.

I blame it on ’80s rock.

The Japanese automaker’s current ad campaign that has been inescapable on radio or TV uses a version of the song “Saved by Zero.” I hated the song when it was popular in 1983. To hear it now 83 times a day is cruel and unusual punishment.

I thought I was alone in my dislike. But the Associated Press reports that there’s a Facebook group called “Stop Playing Toyota’s ‘Saved by Zero’ Commercial” that has more than 2,450 members. (In fact, the AP missed Facebook’s 10 other anti-Zero groups as well as the lone 7-member “Saved By Zero Rocks!” group.)

Like the world’s other automakers, Toyota had a rough October. The weak global economy and strong yen vs. weak U.S. dollar are largely responsible for its 23 percent sales decline.

But until now, Toyota had looked like an unstoppable industrial juggernaut, having this year surpassed General Motors Corp. as the world’s biggest automaker. Sales of its hybrid Prius had soared along with “green” consciousness and gas prices. Camry is the Model T of its day.

Then, someone in marketing picked the wrong jingle.

After Toyota said this year would mark the end of eight consecutive years of profit growth, its American depositary receipts fell 17 percent, or $13.28, to close at $67.09.

Mea Culpa

My pique over Philadelphia’s losing out to North Carolina as GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C.’s U.S. headquarters got in the way of the facts.

Yesterday, I described GlaxoSmithKline’s worldwide headquarters as being in a London suburb, which it is. But the British use of “suburb” is more analogous to a Philadelphia neighborhood, such as Chestnut Hill, rather than someplace like Malvern in Chester County.

The drug maker’s Brentford headquarters are in London, as a London-born executive who works for a Philadelphia-area company told me. It may be near Heathrow Airport on the western edge of the city, but it’s still London.

Posted by Mike Armstrong @ 2:25 AM  Permalink | File Under: Manufacturing | 1 comment
Comments   
Posted 11:59 PM, 11/09/2008
tonyd20
Mike, I had to laugh when I saw your column about the Toyota "Saved By Zero" ad. I know someone who loves it. It's my dog's favorite ad. I think she could care less about the song, but she loves the big zero and stares at it when it moves on the screen.
1 comments
About Mike Armstrong
Mike Armstrong, a business editor and writer for nearly two decades, is the Inquirer's business columnist and PhillyInc blog editor.
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