VIDEO: Escape this hopelessly uncool promo video with a Toyota Previa

A while back we featured a bizarrely dorky promo video about the Toyota Cressida. There must have been something in the water in Torrance in the early 90s, because Toyota USA headquarters churned out what appears to have been an entire video series of schmaltz. This time it features the Toyota Previa and, naturally, enough cheese to clog your major arteries.

It begins with the surging soundtrack of a JRPG as a boy on his bike checks out the new egg-shaped minivan. Soon, though, we descend into suburbia and the chaste vocalizations of a 1980s sitcom couple played by actors with less chemistry than two blank sheets of lined paper.

The storyline follows a journalist struggling with a review of her new Previa.  She spends the whole article waxing poetic about the features and fantasizing about how it makes her feel like a fighter pilot, a chauffeur, and the coolest mom in town. The script, written in the voice of an invading alien masquerading as a an average American attempting the English language, is a litany of awkward insertions about cargo volume surrounded by the icepick-to-the-brain cheeriness and manufactured innocence of cult recruitment film.

Shockingly, this video was actually made, not for sales training or internal marketing folks, but for consumers. After the Truman Show indoctrination bit is done, it actually implores them to drive a Previa themselves at the end. The Previa ended up being a successful minivan in spite of it, but it’s still surprising how much effort went into creating this promo. It isn’t easy being cheesy.

permalink.
This post is filed under: Video and
tagged: , , .

10 Responses to VIDEO: Escape this hopelessly uncool promo video with a Toyota Previa

  1. Banpei says:

    Fantastic! I feel like a fighter pilot too whenever I have to slaom around shopping carts in the parking lot! ?
    This reminds me of a similar cheesy promotional video of the 1989 Toyota Cressida X80 where the husband gets promotion due to his new Cressida?
    https://youtu.be/PKLYHU7pO1k
    Too bad the sound has been muted on that video. Maybe they got a content match with one of the songs inside the video? 
    And am I mistaken, or isn’t that the exact same family?

  2. Long Beach Mike says:

    The clackety keyboard was a nice nostalgia trip.

    Get your head back into the 21st century with a Hoovie’s Garage take on the Previa.

    • nlpnt says:

      Seems like it’d be more up Mr. Regular’s alley. He did a Tercel just this week and I could’ve sworn he’d done a Previa but it’s not coming up on a Youtube search.

      • Long Beach Mike says:

        The one Hoovie bought, blew up, and got fixed by the Wizard has “super car DNA”, what with its factory supercharger and mid-engine rear wheel drive layout, Not all Previas are created equal. Now that Hoovie’s super van is back on the road I expect him to either track it or install nitrous, either of which should see it back in the Wizard’s shop for yet another new engine.

      • Long Beach Mike says:

        But I would love to see Mr. Regular review one.

      • Max says:

        He had a look at a Previa in a video but was unable to drive it. I can’t remember what the actual video was about, though.

        Unless is was a Delica?

    • Banpei says:

      I hear the clackety keyboard every day whenever I type… 😀

  3. I have a Toyota previa they are good vehicles I love to find me another one very dependable reliable and excellent on gas I love my prevail I’m getting ready to buy another one

  4. Speedie says:

    It’s like Invader Zim wanted to show how human he was and did a van video. I kept waiting for the wife to rip off her face and scream “I will rule you earthlings!” Btw I think the husband was played by Gir.

  5. Geoffry Reed says:

    And not a word about mid-engine design, or did I miss that. I can’t bear to watch it again to make sure.The main thing that makes it like no other.

    I could have handled the clacking of the keyboard had it actually been in sync with what she was typing.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *