Last week Toyota’s “Swagger Wagon” commercial, advertising the Sienna minivan, received a lot of attention – mostly from folks like me who thought it was a hilarious, well-produced sales pitch. However, with the positive publicity, of course, came the negative (though depending on who you ask, there is no such thing; especially after months of reading about recalls and safety concerns on what seemed like to a daily basis). Most of the criticism centered around the fact that a young, hip, Caucasian couple being portrayed were rapping about the 2011 Toyota Sienna, and actually doing a decent job in my opinion. Critics claim that the commercial could be seen as racist because it portrays white people in a stereotypically non-white scenario.  Christine Huang, the head of Cultural Trends at an advertising agency that specializes in campains targeting minorities was quoted in a post on personalmoneystore.com posing two questions: When is race role play and cultural appropriation okay? When is it acceptable, and when is it derogatory? In response to the post and the questions raised, readers left the following comments:

• -”This video is hilarious! I find myself watching it a lot. I love my Sienna and now I call it MY swagger wagon! Hey, anything to make being a parent and chauffeur to my kids more cool. If this video is racist then any video/song by a white rapper should be considered as such. It doesn’t say anything derogatory. If anything, I get the vibe that they are poking fun at typical white parents. We usually aren’t very “cool”. LOL!”
• - “I am Black and I think it is very funny! I think the point of the commercial is that vans are not typically cool…so they are trying to make owning/driving a minivan cool.”
• - “I have an answer for the person who asked “What is supposed to be funny about this video?” The fact that they’re white is not what’s funny; it’s what they are rapping about that is funny. I fully believe that if this were a black family or mixed race family rapping about “ownin’ bake sales with my cupcake skills,” it would still be funny.”
• - “Come on people this is a great video. Not everything has hidden racism. I love this commerical and by the way I m black[.]“
• - Seriously, people need to quit being so sensitive. There is seriously nothing wrong with video/song. I thought it was creatively played out and entertaining. Of course the people in the video look stupid; they’re rapping about a freaking minivan! And they did a heck of a good job doing it too.

As you can see by these comments, not only do they think that the commercial is not racist, but they also found it entertaining. Toyota would probably very happy with this feedback, but I’d bet they’d be even happier if there were more comments on the 2011 Sienna minivan. The Toyota folks should be pleased to know that there are plenty of good words about their ’swagger wagon’ – the car, not the commercial – on sites like ClubLexus.com – though these date back to February (Apparently I was right for thinking I had already seen the commercial once before!).

See the ‘Swagger Wagon’ 2011 Toyota Sienna commercial on YouTube