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October 14, 2007

WWLJD?

I place this in the "homage" category. Am I wrong? What would Leeroy Jenkins do? Either way, it's interesting that this is ad does double duty for two brands. Do you suppose the T-Shirts with, "I am the law giver!" are already printed? Come to think of it, this Toyota campaign must be created by nerds after my own heart. So far, they've worked in Nessie, meteors from space, a mechanized monster and now WOW.
 

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» I'm a Warcaft Nerd. Give me a Toyota. from That Interweb
8,000,000 World of Warcraft players saw this spot last week and thought, Cool. Toyota rules. Will it sell trucks? Maybe, maybe not. Do people that don't play Warcraft get it? Most likely not. But one thing is for sure, the [Read More]

Comments

i place it in the "hack job" category, jj.

seriously. andrew and i threw down the crystal hand shield (or whatever those WOW geeks call things that one might throw when ready to fight) on the Agency Spy blog (they had a nerdgasm over this spot) and no one really seemed to (admit to) see the connection.

i think it's crap. i also think it's poorly conceived. the guy driving the truck (the law giver) would have totally had to get out of his cab, put on his life circles or whatever the hell they're called and PLACE the monster's heart in the bed of his truck (by hand, mind you). and that takes time to do. everyone knows you don't just scoop a heart up and drive through a belly. bush league.

nerds. i'm off to strategize a campaign using a familiar pop-culture reference because i can't come up with original ideas. later.

Hey, just because I steal topics from you guys is no reason for you to do the same.

I do like "I am the lawgiver." But the guy saying "There are no truck in World of Warcraft" just derails the middle in a "let's explain what's going on to the non-geeks" way.

This commercial makes me mad.

Jason...sorry...been offline mostly so am woefully behind checking blogs. You're right about the line. It's the "get it" insurance. But yeah, it clunks right there in the middle.

As for the other concern, the vast majority of humans don't know about LJ. Let's grant that. But he does have his on wikipedia entry. That's why I don't think the creative team was trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes with this. I mean they even worked in the phrase, "Let's do this." There's no attempt to hide the roots of this thing which is why I'm not having a big problem with it. But hey, this is why I asked the question.

I never stopped to think about the nerd connection Toyota seems to be favoring. Hmmn. For the next one I'm putting my chips on Dune sandworms.

And oh, Leeroy Jenkins, you're my idol. Rare is the three-hour conference-room-in-lockdown strategy meeting, that I don't wish I could pull a LJ-style "let's do this -- Leeroy Jeeeeenkins" and just get down to making ads.

I think this is not a homage, but rather a rip-off of an extremely hilarious viral. I don't see how you could sell this through as a homage to the client.

Interestingly enough, I love the Coke spot that takes place in the Grand Theft Auto world (http://youtube.com/watch?v=zfhZfSVuup4). They're not attempting to recreate an already existing piece -- they're just evolving it.

One might say that this is the case here, except they use practically the same voice and nearly the same words. Also, the Coke spot didn't have to say, "there's no coke in Grand Theft Auto."

Regardless, I'm sure many will say both spots are the same. Just watch for a Chocolate Rain candy bar to come out soon and for the debate to start again.

Geez, tough critics.

Coming from someone who's never played WoW and has no idea (or interest) who Leroy Jenkins is, I thought the spot was pretty cool. And hey I loved the Grand Theft Coke spot but I don’t think you should fault this one simply b/c it doesn’t “evolve” as such. Using the “same voice” and getting actual WoW players to do the VOs (which they did) was a smart choice b/c it adds to the realism and thus makes the “hey this is actually a Tacoma commercial” a fun surprise.

In a notoriously trite category that forever pummels the world with the same old cookie-cutter shit, I find the Tacoma work to be some of the better car/truck advertising out there. Instead of whining about that one derailing line we should be happy that they didn’t give us yet another spot of a truck mindlessly driving up a mountain-range or hauling ass in a mud field.

I do usually like the Tacoma stuff. This just seemed a bit meh. Maybe it's because South Park did it last year (or longer?) or because I'm cranky. But I still say it's the lack of good dialogue.

And John -- I was joking. I rip you off all the time.

A-freakin-men Chris B. A-Freakin-Men.

Such nerd hate. I'm shocked. As one of the 8,000,000 people playing WoW, I thought this spot rocked. Nailed the feel, fun and community interaction of the game. I guarantee that if they made a Tacoma available in game, people would get them.

Plus, the strategy is really smart. Taps into the whole "machinima" world. Hits a huge target right in the kisser. Overall, brilliant. Wish I did it.

Stop hating on the nerds.

Signed,
Shaggyda
Night Elf, 69lvl Rogue
Knight of the House of Theeth
Blackwater Raiders

Wow, the nerds are sensitive (and if you'd ever met myself or John you'd know how ironic that statement is). We're not bagging on the spot because of the target; we're bagging on it because of the execution. It doesn't suck, but it could've been so much better.

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