Toyota’s Lame Ploy: Hip Hop to Sell Minivans?

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The savvy marketing industry has once again found a way to take hip hop and make it non-threatening enough to sell minivans. In this case, a yuppie couple with their two kids — a rap antithesis — who star in Toyota’s “Meet the Siennas” campaign, grab the mic in their Swagger Wagon video.

The Urban Dictionary defines the slang term “swagger” as how one presents him or her self to the world. The word was recently popularized in Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em’s 2009 chart topping Turn My Swag On, where he describes swagger simply as self-confidence. Apparently, for Toyota, swagger means working to combat the PR black eye the company got when it had to recall several models due to a gas pedal glitch.

To be sure, the flow is whack, as are the lyrics spat by the boo-boo kissing mom and her balding husband (“motherfather,” really?) and there are no chrome rims, pimpin’ sound systems, and no donk on these automobiles to speak of.  But the video’s spread widely, receiving more than 1.6 million views on You Tube.

Things like this were bound to happen when they locked up Lil’ Wayne. But at least until he gets sprung, expect lots more because I have a suspicion Toyota’s got a vault full of this non-blinged out couple and their kids.

After watching the video, you’ll be as sure as we are that Tupac’s ghost is crying for vengeance.