Woman suing Toyota for ’stalker’ ad campaign
Reading, especially the “fine print,” has never been an American strong suit.
The "Your Other You" website was designed to appeal to "young men who love to play pranks on each other."
That trend continues in California, where a court is allowing a woman’s $10 million lawsuit to proceed against Toyota after she unwittingly agreed to take part in an elaborate online advertising hoax.
Wired Magazine reports Amanda Duick sued the carmaker in 2009 after she began receiving “frightening” e-mails from a stranger who appeared to know her personal details.
Duick was unknowingly signed up for Toyota’s bizarre advertising stunt by a friend, who selected one of five fictional characters to send her “stalker” emails.
She was sent a link to a “personality test” and agreed to the website’s terms and conditions, which stated she would receive emails for up to five days.
Shortly therafter, “Sebastian Bowler,” who claimed to be 25-year-old Englishman and soccer fanatic with a drinking problem, began emailing Duick.
According to court documents, the first email read: “Amber mate! Coming 2 Los Angeles. Gonna lay low at your place for a bit. Till it all blows over. Bringing Trigger.”
A link to a fake MySpace page showed “Sebastian” and Trigger, a large pit bull.
The following day she got an email including her previous home address, describing it as a “Nice place to hide out,” and advising her that “Trigger don’t throw up much anymore, but put some newspaper down in case.”
The messages grew more alarming.
“Had a brush with the law last night. Anyway, hopefully I’ll have lost them by the time I get to your place.”
One message said Sebastian ” … ran into a little problem at the hotel,” and Duick subsequently received an email from an individual identifying himself as “Jimmy Citro,” purporting to be the manager of a motel and billing Duick for the damage Bowler had done to the motel’s property.
The final email included a link to a video revealing the elaborate prank was just an advertising campaign for the Toyota Matrix.
I’m guessing Duick won’t be buying a Toyota anytime soon.
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64 comments Add your comment
missbits
September 15th, 2011
2:57 pm
Seems to me she should be suing the “friend” that signed her up. The friend should then sue her for agreeing to the terms and conditions.
Steve
September 15th, 2011
3:35 pm
Are you sure your screen name shouldn’t be “DangerouslyStupidWoman “?
BWW
September 15th, 2011
3:39 pm
I could use a good stalking!
Dave
September 15th, 2011
5:04 pm
The woman deserves nothing.
But Toyota earns well deserved disrespect for absolute stupidity.
If this is their idea of Marketing, they deserve to go bankrupt.
Mark
September 16th, 2011
6:48 pm
It is irrelevant that she agreed to the terms and conditions and a California Appellate court ruled in her favor saying that Toyota mislead her into agreeing to the terms and conditions under false pretense.
The woman was not made aware of the stalking which constitutes the false pretense as she was made to believe signing up would entail other ‘benefits’ which did not include a creepy guy reciting information about you and telling you he was a criminal and coming to stay at your house.
This will never go to trial as Toyota is going to have to do a lot of damage control if this were to be contested in court. Expect to never hear another thing about this case again as it will be settled quietly out of court and both parties will sign confidentiality agreements.
What a tremendously ignorant advertising campaign. The guy or gal who gave this idea the green light I expect will be looking for another job in the near future.
Mark
September 16th, 2011
6:54 pm
I’m not understanding people’s reactions to this story.
One man accused the woman of stupidity for not simply changing her email??? How would that have possibly helped her if the guy sending her the emails knew her name. address and personal details and was telling her he was on his way??? The woman was probably terrified! What people don’t get is that the prank worked and the woman genuinely believed that this guy whom she had never met was coming to live with her.
Oh and again the fine print did NOT mention the stalking so how was she to know?
Mark
September 16th, 2011
7:00 pm
Think of it like this:
She signs up to receive emails from Toyota thinking it’s legit and that they are probably going to send her advertisements. Maybe she’s in the market for a car?
Toyota then immediately begins their hare-brained scheme with the stalker emails.
She thinks OH CRAP I gotten duped by a hacker with a fake email claiming to be from Toyota and now this guy has gone through my computer and retrieved all of my personal details.
Emails get more creepy and she starts to get even more scared.
Toyota sends her the final email reassuring her that no she was not duped we’re simply idiots who wanted you to believe that you were.
TOYOTA FAIL.
abe
September 16th, 2011
8:02 pm
thats what toyota does scare people buy american keep your job lower your taxes keep america stronge
Joe
September 17th, 2011
4:20 am
People like this should be shot. Her being spammed is not worth millions. SHE should have to pay millions for hurting Toyota’s image, and if she can’t pay, hard-time. I’m tired of this crap ruining society.
Funny about Money
September 17th, 2011
8:51 am
What a vile and cynical marketing campaign. One reader wrote, “Humor has been the backbone of advertising campaigns for decades. There is a risk of misunderstanding inherent in any droll marketing campaign.”
Clearly this commenter has never been the target of a real-life stalker. Toyota’s ad gimmick may seem funny to the uninformed and the inexperienced, but the truth is, there’s no “humor” to it.
That the woman didn’t take 15 or 20 minutes of her time to read near-microscopic fine print that looks like boilerplate does not change the nastiness of Toyota’s “droll” campaign. It’s just one more incident that makes this loyal customer of 40 years think twice about buying another Toyota.