Toyota Faces Massive Ad Buy to Rescue Brand

Toyota is going to have to shell out for the biggest and best ad campaign in its history to have any hope of bouncing back from the recall disaster, ad industry execs say. The company—which is losing an estimated $400 million a week while sales and production are suspended—has suffered a multi-billion dollar blow to its brand and its future will hinge on how it responds, analysts tell Advertising Age.

"The next voice that they bring to the marketplace is the most critical decision they will ever make," an exec who worked on the Toyota account in the '90s says. Domino's rebounded after their CEO admitted "Boy, we stink and we're going to try this again," she notes, but Toyota's "Japanese family culture" will probably rule out that approach. She estimates the battered firm will need to spend some $500 million on ads "just to move the needle back in the right direction." (More Toyota stories.)