5 Things That No Radio Ad Should Do

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If you live in St. Louis and listen to the radio on a daily basis during your commute, you probably hear a bunch of different commercials from various businesses (local or afar). Now, if you're like me, you also want to bang your head on your steering wheel when you hear the ear splitting sound effects that some of these employ. Without further ado, here are the five most annoying things that get my hand reaching to change the station. Have you heard all of 'em? See for yourself-

1. Loud weights being dropped / gavels hitting blocks/ the sound of metal clanking:

Giving us a headache every half second in between what you're trying to say generally isn't a great way to keep people interested. Unless you're trying to sell ibuprofen.

2.  Police sirens or the sound of alarms going off:

Your sale might be so good it's criminal, but every time I hear police sirens, I have to do a double take and make sure there's not actually a police officer nearby trying to pass through traffic.

3. When the GM/CEO of a company voices every commercial in the same repetitive, monotone way:

             It's good to be consistent. It's not so good to be dull to the point of inducing yawns. In the internet world, it is the equivalent of a wall of text, akin to the thought of Ben Stein reading a short novel to you while you're locked in an empty room. This is the kind of stuff that puts you asleep at the wheel, and as we know, drowsy driving is never fun.

4. Mentioning the number you should call more than a few times:

The way this usually works is, it'll be a conversation between two or more people, and some guy will keep asking what the number to call is. We're not just talking once or twice, it'll literally be every few seconds. These types of commercials are usually guilty of #3 as well. What's that number again?!

5. Jingles designed to specifically get on your nerves:

I have nothing against La Bamba. It's a catchy song. But when you try to mimic it or parody it by adding in your own lyrics to tell people to come to your business, it usually doesn't end well. Imagine the song, then imagine instead of "La La La La La Bamba", you hear an awkward voice singing "You should be buying from us!"

What sounds or effects drive you crazy when you hear radio commercials in the car? Or do you skip 'em by using satellite radio or iHeartRadio with Entune?

The One Toyota Ad You Have to See

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There have certainly been some interesting videos from Toyota this year. From the "how did they think of that?" department comes the series of ads featuring the Prius c and a spoof of the game of Life. They also made an original song to promote their 100 Cars for Good initiative. As a social media guy, one of the spots I really like is the Venza ad where the girl talks about setting up Facebook profiles for her parents and how they've already got 19 friends. Have you seen it? Or would you prefer an endorsement from your favorite childhood celebrity? Fear not, they recruited both BILL NYE and WINNIE COOPER from The Wonder Years to educate you on the Prius.

However, my favorite from Toyota's repertoire of Youtube content this year is the futuristic video they created below. Ever seen the movie Idiocracy? If you haven't, the gist of the film is that a man is sent to the future, where he finds that despite advances in technology, people have actually become less intelligent over time (a brilliant concept, if you ask me. Mike Judge is a genius).
The same principle applies to this alternate reality where a couple set off to work in the morning. I won't spoil any details, but the story behind it all is "a world without hybrids".

What is your favorite video from Toyota? Leave us a comment or tweet it to @LouFuszToyota with your thoughts! 

How Sacred is Your Car's Exterior Apperance?

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You know the old saying, "your body is a temple"? I wonder if the same sort of system exists for people and their cars. I've never had a large spoiler or any customizations done, though I have been guilty in the past of plastering my first ever set of wheels with bumper stickers. In my defense, the 18 year old version of me thought it was cool (and imperative) that the world know I enjoyed ska music!
As I've gotten older, however, I've started appreciating the beauty of cars that aren't covered in stickers, flame decals, or crazy fins. Then again, this could be the same mentality that turns me into the type later in life to yell at kids to get off my lawn. Reddit user Elektron9 seems to agree, as he recently posted the photo below, depicting a random Toyota Camry he came across, and how he would fix it to make it better.

Now, I don't think I've ever actually seen someone driving a Camry with an added spoiler and exhaust pipe, but there is a first for everything! After my initial surprise, I did a little digging and found this list which has a bunch of different mods and goes over "the good, the bad, and the ugly" of customizing the appearance of your ride. Of all the ones listed, I think window tinting is the most universally accepted personalization. A slight tint always looks good...lamborghini door kits, maybe not so much.
How do you feel about car customization? Can it be done in a tasteful way, or does it only serve to make a vehicle overly flashy and exponentially louder? What have you done (or would do) to your car? 

McTrouble- Or, How You Know It's Time to Clean Out Your Car

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They say one man's trash is another man's treasure. And I suppose if we're thinking in terms of gold (golden arches, that is) the more the merrier!  That must be what this driver was thinking, at least. Twitter user Joel recently posted the photo below as he was making his way through a crowded parking lot. The owner of this car could probably stand to clean it out, which makes you wonder how many times on a daily basis he/she hears that from friends and family! I'm not sure if one can have an intervention for letting trash pile up, but then again, we do have reality tv shows about people who hoard stuff that most of us would sooner put in the garbage can.

Does seeing this photo make you want to grab a vacuum cleaner and some trash bags (or maybe a barf bag, instead?)
A friend of mine is in a similar predicament with his ride. He has yet to clean his car, and seems to be falling into a trap where the dirtier his car gets, the less he's motivated to clean it out, because it will entail that much more work. At least on the plus side, he always has an excuse when it comes time to carpool. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who's gonna want to ride shotgun in that!

Consider this our friendly public service announcement to clean your car out once in awhile. Got any dirty car stories or photos of your own? Leave a comment and share 'em with us!

Parallel Parking With the Scion iQ [Funny]

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Parallel parking - some of us seem to be seasoned experts at it, while others can never quite grasp the concept at all. It certainly takes a reasonable amount of finesse to master this artful process! Just ask anyone who has lived in the suburbs all their life, compared to someone who lives or works in a major metropolitan area. You can reasonably predict who will be the better parallel parker more often than not. I won't lie - I was awful at it for the longest time. That person you saw backing in and out multiple times until finally settling on a shoddy attempt where the car is protruding out into the street? There's a fair chance it was probably me. It wasn't until I moved somewhere that only had off street parking, that I finally started to hone my skills out of necessity.

That being said, Scion released a set of videos just recently showing their new iQ in action, making some ridiculous parking maneuvers. Click the video below to see for yourself! If you haven't heard of the iQ yet, it's being compared to the Smart car and Ford's Smart Fortwo as a serious contender for the title of best smallest car.  We've just started getting the Scion iQ here at Lou Fusz Toyota, and everyone agrees, this thing is tiny but very cool. 

So how good are you at parallel parking? Think you could easily fit a bigger car on the first try, or would you rather have something like the iQ that makes it a breeze to fit into tiny spaces? 

Personifying the speed camera, literally

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What's a day in the life of a speeding camera like? If you're famed French prankster Rémi Gaillard, you decide to find out for yourself!

Gallard, who first gained viral Youtube fame by recreating the popular video game "Mario Kart" and driving through the streets of Paris, has decided to target random drivers in his latest stunt.
Cleverly disguised as a speeding camera machine with legs, he flashes anything that crosses his path. And as you can see in the video (and the hilarious, but predictable ending) that means anything. The idea of a speeding  camera machine with a brain likely created some priceless double-take expressions on the faces of all those drivers!

Perhaps Gallard's intention was to get us thinking: do we take speeding and red light cameras too seriously, or not seriously enough? How do you react when cameras flash on you as you're driving?