Untapped Market?: Toyota Uses Jailhouse Tatoos For Advertising

When the new issue of TV Guide reaches newsstands on Thursday, readers will find a 16-page booklet devoted to Fox's "Prison Break" series inside, including a pair of ad spreads capitalizing on a plot point to sell the Toyota Yaris.

The ads are the latest examples of advertising designed to break out by leveraging one brand to promote another -- and the creative contributions from magazine publishers that once came exclusively from ad agencies.

The ads show a man's back and chest, both covered by elaborate tattoos resembling the tattoos worn by "Prison Break" protagonist Michael Scofield. In the show's first two seasons, viewers found out that Scofield's tattoos incorporate hidden prison blueprints; in the ads, the tattoos feature the Yaris and the Toyota logo.


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w209w114 - 10/2/2007 4:55:16 PM

+1 Boost

What disgrace to have this tatooed on your skin for the rest of your life.

w209w114 - 10/2/2007 4:57:34 PM

+1 Boost

Well the tattoo in the pic isnt real anyway. This advertisements just seem bizzare to me.

What small demographic are they appealing to here?

EnnNorak - 10/3/2007 12:25:56 AM

+3 Boost

I suppose that next we'll see some chick getting a Corolla tatooed on her butt on LA Ink.

Will_ - 10/2/2007 5:38:16 PM

+2 Boost

I guess I shouldn't have gotten that Corolla tattoo on my leg last month during my soul-searching...

aanji - 10/2/2007 7:24:15 PM

-2 Boost

ha ha , that is true

Porschinator - 10/2/2007 8:02:33 PM

0 Boost

Yaris is big with criminals!!! lol

r15mohd - 10/3/2007 8:25:09 AM

+1 Boost

i don't think any of you really understand MARKETING STRATEGIES.

Prison Break is one of TV's hottest shows weekly!!! If the ump-teen million viewers understand and know the tatoo's relevance, and see a Toyota Yaris, what do you expect them to think about when they imagine Schofield's ink?

Everytime Schofield shows ink on the show now, they will have the image of the Yaris.

GREAT marketing!!!

Yonder7 - 10/3/2007 8:54:31 AM

+1 Boost

r15mohd you are 100% right. Now think about what is the main market for cheap cars?, Young people. It is hard for me imagine a mature person willing to get a tatoo like that, I know there are, but most will be young people.