Toyota achieved a sort of pinnacle in the U.S. market by creating reliable, high-quality, fuel-economic products. But the brand's superiority in each of those areas has been eroded over the last three years by Toyota's own mistakes and by improving competition.

Now that Toyota seems to have put the drag of its 2010 safety recall and this year's earthquake in its rear-view mirror, it will be interesting to see how the company positions the brand in its attempt to recover U.S. market share. The early returns: The new Toyota isn't the old Toyota.

Take the 2011 campaign for the Toyota Venza, a fair-to-middling cross-over utility vehicle that the brand introduced a couple of years ago, but which hasn't been a headline nameplate for the automaker — yet.Continue reading...

In other comedian/car brand hook-up news comes word of Toyota's deadpan new campaign for the Yaris, featuring comedian Michael Showalter (of Wet Hot American Summer quasi-fame) in eight spots.

The campaign is described on the Yaris Facebook page as "It's a car! Using only the most standardly standards, the standard features that come standard on the Yaris make it the car-iest car in its class (of cars). Go ahead! Take a gander and bask in its utilitarian extravagance!"

He touts a different "feature" in each spot, from the wheels on up, on a microsite (toyota.com/itsacar) that also features a multiplayer game optimized for Google Chrome. Check them out below.Continue reading...