Friday March 29th, 2024
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Toyota Egypt's Sexist 'Made for Men' Ad Campaign Backfires

Egyptians are not happy with Toyota Fortuner’s controversial “Made for Men” advert.

Staff Writer

Toyota Egypt’s new advertising campaign has gone viral and created major noise on social media, but not necessarily for the right reasons.

The “Made for Men” advertising campaign for the new Fortuner, which has already amassed a total of 3.3M views on their Facebook page, plays on the assumption that since the modern man no longer needs to hunt like his primitive ancestors, it’s harder for him to “liberate his man side”, but thankfully he still knows how to use his power, so he should therefore own a Fortuner.  Quite the leap there. 

The campaign which uses the hashtag #MFM (Made for Men) has been harshly criticised by Egyptians on social media, with one user commenting: “Toyota Global are you aware of this sexist ad? You need to deal with this garbage ASAP”. Another user commented: A car made for men? Does this make it a better vehicle?” Toyota Egypt has even commented back to one user, claiming that his ad is "not sexist at all".

Others have even accused the automaker of hiding comments that accuse them of sexism on Facebook.

It’s not totally bonkers to believe that Toyota has created a controversial advert on purpose to create conversation, positive or negative, and was this their goal, they’ve definitely achieved it.

You know what they say– any publicity is good publicity – and with this viral ad, Toyota has managed to keep their name on people’s lips.

Main image from Toyota Egypt