I Am Lame According to Toyota

Earlier this summer, I wrote a post about how I love the Toyota Sienna Swagger Wagon commercials. I crave them like I do 30 Rock and Modern Family. I think they’re a riot, and they give me a hankerin’ for a minivan.  In fact, I draw hearts and NP + TS on Sienna pictures I rip out from magazines before I tape them in my locker.

Then Toyota rolled out the campaign for the Highlander featuring some snarky little smart aleck, and I hit the brakes on my Toyota girl crush.

Now, I love the Highlander. My dad, Big Al, drives one, and I think it’s fabulous.

What I don’t like is a snide, too-hip-for-the-room elementary schooler talking smack about his parents.

(OK, he’s an actor and his parents are actors, but you catch my drift). In each of the commercials, he points out his parents’ nerd-like tendencies (“I don’t tolerate ‘dorkiness’ very well,” he says), and to reclaim their cool factor, he insists, they need the shiny, souped-up Highlander their neighbors have.

Know what, Snarkles? Mom and Dad are driving that wood-paneled '80s minivan because children are expensive, not because they don’t want to hold on to their youth. You’re wearing a leather jacket, for goodness’ sake! Do you know how pricy leather jackets are for 10-year-olds? The entire campaign makes me uncomfortable and establishes that rampant materialism and talking back to your parents are super cool.

“Just because you’re a parent doesn’t mean you have to be lame,” he says.

I guess I am lame. And I’m OK with that. I'm not the only "lame" parent out here suggesting Toyota shove a sock in it (check out this one, or this one, or this one ...)

By Nicole Plegge, Lifestyle Blogger for SmartParenting