Saved By Zero Kills
November 21, 2008 2:10 PM   Subscribe

Saved by Zero Kills (slyt) [via Consumerist]

Mashup of Toyota's "Saved by Zero" promotion and The Ring trailer.
posted by owtytrof (45 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
It was kind of meh until I saw the kid's drawings.
posted by stavrogin at 2:14 PM on November 21, 2008




Toyota Bluuuuuuue
posted by pyrex at 2:21 PM on November 21, 2008 [1 favorite]


FixxFilter
One Thing - ONE ONE THING - Leads to aah-nooth-eer
posted by porn in the woods at 2:22 PM on November 21, 2008 [3 favorites]


From the description:

"Created by an art director, an after effects guy, and two writers who LOATHE this commercial."

Congrats! You just gave Toyota more exposure. And by copying that which you loathe so much, you just exposed me to even more of that same loathe-worthy thing!
posted by pyrex at 2:24 PM on November 21, 2008


Yeah, and I followed the final link, read the article, and watched a commercial I'd previously been oblivious to.

Gotta go. Phone.
posted by cjorgensen at 2:36 PM on November 21, 2008 [1 favorite]


Combustible Edison Lighthouse: "Toyota Won't Stop Saved By Zero Ads Despite Pleas From Thousands Of Facebookers"

I thought that was going to be a link to The Onion.
posted by Plutor at 2:49 PM on November 21, 2008


Plain Zero!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:51 PM on November 21, 2008


loathe-worthy

loathsome
posted by boo_radley at 2:59 PM on November 21, 2008 [1 favorite]


Highly annoying ad. Agreed. Nonplussed.

Don't miss the actual free HDMI cable gem hiding in this post, though!
posted by Bokononist at 3:00 PM on November 21, 2008


The text of the ad says "for a limited time" and I've gotten to the point of just laughing contemptuously at that. Fuckers.
posted by shadow vector at 3:05 PM on November 21, 2008


Haha. Great video. Now how about one for those damn Optimum Online ads (although I don't know how far this plague has reached across the country).

Call 8-6-7 313 F@!K
posted by sswiller at 3:11 PM on November 21, 2008


I just checked, and it turns out this is, in fact, something I'd need a TV to understand.
posted by cortex at 3:13 PM on November 21, 2008 [4 favorites]


They didn't play the truly eyeball-scraping part, where 'saved by zero' is chanted rhythmically saved by zero, saved by zero, saved by zero, saved by zero until it's stuck in your head for days and weeks and you still don't know what the fuck it means.
posted by shakespeherian at 3:18 PM on November 21, 2008


Plea from thousands of facebookers?
If you do not copy and paste this message into 10 other metafilter threads, your mother will DIE!
posted by Vulpyne at 3:35 PM on November 21, 2008


here is the original ad.
posted by delmoi at 3:36 PM on November 21, 2008


The Saved By Zero ad is the absolute worst thing about this recession.
posted by dirigibleman at 4:24 PM on November 21, 2008


The first time I heard the ad I cried for 3 days straight. The next time I heard it I went to the pound and stomped on a bag full of puppies. The aftermath of the fiftieth time I heard it involved a rocket-assisted trebuchet, a nuclear bomb and a meth lab. When will Toyota learn that no good can come of this.
posted by wavering at 4:41 PM on November 21, 2008


Any speculation on what the hell "saved by zero" is actually supposed to mean? In the context of the song, I mean - I'm assuming it wasn't written about auto financing.
posted by Astragalus at 4:50 PM on November 21, 2008


Though the public's reaction to the "Saved by Zero" ads has been mostly negative, no one will argue the campaign's effectiveness.

*spews drink out nose*

Really? The ad industry shill is seriously making the argument that a relentlessly repeated ad campaign that creates a "mostly negative" reaction now qualifies as so obviously "effective" that no one in the industry will even bother to claim otherwise? Is that seriously what she's saying there? Are clients really that fucking dumb about how this is supposed to work?

"With so much clutter now, and so many media options, cultural transcendence is huge," Iezzi says. "It's what creative people aim for.

Unbelievable. They actually say this stuff, with a straight face, in places clients will see. It's stunning that anyone paying the bill for these so-called "creative people" would believe the line that running an annoying ad so much it infuriates your target audience now somehow counts as [cough] "cultural transcendence." Surely the clients suspect in their hearts they're being taken/reamed/bullshitted by lying "creatives" who tell them that no, really, alienating the majority of your customers is great for the brand because, um, you see, at least they're talking about how fucking annoying your product is. Isn't that awesome??

And yet the dumbass clients keep coming back for more, simply because they don't have a fucking clue what else to do.

Absolutely fucking hilarious.
posted by mediareport at 4:53 PM on November 21, 2008 [2 favorites]


My hero, zero.
posted by GrammarMoses at 5:03 PM on November 21, 2008


Any speculation on what the hell "saved by zero" is actually supposed to mean? In the context of the song, I mean - I'm assuming it wasn't written about auto financing.
posted by Astragalus


The cosmological constant. The Fixx were worried about models where the universe was either expanding or shrinking, and their beloved static universe was saved when the constant = 0.
posted by COBRA! at 5:05 PM on November 21, 2008 [5 favorites]


Strange to say, I've never seen this ad.

But man do I fucking hate that "Start Wearing Purple" ad. Dear Yahoo: I don't know what it means, and I don't care.
posted by fungible at 7:11 PM on November 21, 2008


Purple.
posted by fixedgear at 7:32 PM on November 21, 2008


something I'd need a TV to understand.

There's one in every crowd....
posted by Zambrano at 7:33 PM on November 21, 2008




I would like to meet the musicians who took the emotion out of the song.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 11:09 PM on November 21, 2008


Absolutely fucking hilarious.

I agree with you completely. And yet here we are talking about this goddamned ad.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 11:57 PM on November 21, 2008




Saved by Zero

Now please stop pissing on the tawdry crap that is my personal madeleine. This ad sucks. Fuck you for making it, person who made it.
posted by From Bklyn at 4:10 AM on November 22, 2008


From Bklyn — that link is dead! Oh my god. It must have watched the commercial!

*screams but only a beeping sound comes out*
posted by papercake at 5:13 AM on November 22, 2008


Any speculation on what the hell "saved by zero" is actually supposed to mean? In the context of the song, I mean - I'm assuming it wasn't written about auto financing.

According to Cy Curnin:
"The song was written from the point of view of the release you get when you have nothing left to lose. It clears your head of all fears and panics and illusions and you get back to the basics, which is a Buddhist mantra, which I practiced back then, and which I still do," he said. "The idea of the song is how great it is to get back to zero."
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 7:02 AM on November 22, 2008


Though the public's reaction to the "Saved by Zero" ads has been mostly negative, no one will argue the campaign's effectiveness.

Couldn't you make the same argument for Richard Speck or Charles Whitman's work? I mean negative reaction? Check. Memorable? Check. I'd worry about even making this comment, but I'm sure that, somewhere, a legal department is already pouring over a proposed "spokes-serial-killer" campaign.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 8:07 AM on November 22, 2008


Really? The ad industry shill is seriously making the argument that a relentlessly repeated ad campaign that creates a "mostly negative" reaction now qualifies as so obviously "effective" that no one in the industry will even bother to claim otherwise?

This metafilter story caused me to watch the original ad on Youtube to figure out what everyone found so loathesome.

What I got was a car commercial mentioning that Toyota has "legendary quality".

In other words, by creating an advert that people are making into viral videos and posting about on Facebook and Metafilter, the ad company has exposed at least one person - me - to adverts I would not otherwise have seen, telling me Toyota has a reputation for quality.

Furthermore, I was disappointed by an advert that was nothing like as bad as bloggers and the commenters on this thread had lead me to believe. Frankly, it looked just like any other car advert.
posted by Mike1024 at 11:29 AM on November 22, 2008 [1 favorite]



Though the public's reaction to the "Saved by Zero" ads has been mostly negative, no one will argue the campaign's effectiveness.


I didn't know it was that easy, I should get into advertising.


Spokesperson: Buy Furiousxgeorge brand widgets!

*takes a baseball bat and beats a box of puppies and kittens to death*

Spokesperson: FURIOUSXGEORGE BRAND WIDGETS DID THIS!
posted by furiousxgeorge at 11:45 AM on November 22, 2008



Furthermore, I was disappointed by an advert that was nothing like as bad as bloggers and the commenters on this thread had lead me to believe.


No, you need to listen to it 10000 times before you know what we are talking about.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 11:47 AM on November 22, 2008


The commercial is so bad that it makes one long for political ads. It was on non-stop during the World Series.
posted by fixedgear at 2:08 PM on November 22, 2008


No, you need to listen to it 10000 times before you know what we are talking about.

Did the ad buyers actually buy 10,000 consecutive ad slots on every TV and radio station? Because if so that's the awesomest advertising campaign I've ever heard of.
posted by Mike1024 at 2:26 PM on November 22, 2008


According to Esquire, they have shown it up to 42000 times on a single day. It gets a serious amount of repetition, most anything can be tolerated once for 30 seconds, you look like an idiot claiming you understand the problem after watching it once.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 2:50 PM on November 22, 2008


It's like the difference between "Yeah, I've heard Dancing Queen, it's kinda cheerful and poppy, right?" and having it on repeat for a four hour car ride.
posted by Plutor at 3:46 PM on November 22, 2008


Perhaps they saw this advert first.

Seriously, though, I have a certain respect for people who can come up with a strategy as simple yet effective as Toyota have used here.
posted by Mike1024 at 4:02 PM on November 22, 2008


PEOPLE PEOPLE DON'T YOU SEE THIS AD IS TEARING US APART!!!!!!!
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 5:09 PM on November 22, 2008


I think that the "Saved by Zero" ad is probably the most banal of the Eighties music ads yet... but that's kind of to be expected, really.

That said, I'm looking forward to seeing "I like to move it, move it"... turned into a laxative ad someday.
posted by markkraft at 2:23 PM on November 23, 2008 [1 favorite]


I once heard the Saved by Zero commercial 3 xs in a row during every football game break on TV.

And that's when I though me and our 357 magnum should have a talk.
posted by dasheekeejones at 10:46 AM on November 25, 2008


Um, you don't *have* to watch the ad do you? Can't you just turn it off?
posted by mr. strange at 5:03 PM on November 27, 2008


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