The wacky kids over at wacky Scion got a wacky idea. Biting off a bit of Volkswagen and Mini's mojo, Toyota's youth brand brought the fun and games to the somnolent Chicago auto show. Yes, the company showed off a couple of goofy-looking little cars. And, yes, the company handed out CDs containing music sure to confound and annoy your average car journalist...
No, this year, Scion is making T-shirts on-demand for any old freebie-sniffing journalist or representative of a competing car company. Choose from among what appear to be 1,000 shots of various Scion models done up with bright pop-art graphics. The crazy-sock-wearing girl behind the counter, who says she'll be happy to get back to being the "product specialist" she was hired to be, prints it out and has one of her shabbily dressed assistants press it onto a shirt.
We pushed our way through the crowd of visiting Japanese car-company employees and got us a hot-pink xB with cartoon bombs on it. Then we rounded up the girl who modeled branded sweatshirts for Automobile magazine from 1993-'97 (who as luck would have it was sitting in the seat next to us).
Then we wrote a blog about it. And then we finished writing a blog about it by noting that the T-shirts will, sadly, not be available to the general public. Journalists get all the good stuff. — Daniel Pund, Senior Editor, Detroit
ateixeira says:
02:09 PM, 02/ 8/07
If they can get journalists to wear them, it would be a coup. But more likely they'll give them to their nieces.
steve_ says:
02:23 PM, 02/ 8/07
No Scions floating in a "water" mouse? Or is that last year's swag?