One hundred days before the opening of the 2024 Paris Olympics, Toyota fired up its promotional campaign for the games by unleashing an inspirational “send off” video on social media.
The 60-second heartwarmer comes from an automaker that has been a top-tier Olympic sponsor since 2017, and spent a rumoured $835mn on the effort. Alas, after more than a month online, at the time of writing the charming montage had not even had 6,000 views on Toyota’s official YouTube channel. For scale, that’s the number of cars the company sold worldwide every 4.5 hours in 2023.
Enough, it seems, is enough. The Olympics have changed because the viewership has changed and it takes moments like these to appreciate that and rethink. Toyota’s record-breaking, four-Olympic (two summer, two winter games) contract with the International Olympic Committee will end when the torch leaves Paris later this year. Toyota, say sources at the company, has no plans to renew.