Commercials are designed to sell a product. Sometimes, companies get a little confused about what exactly it is they are supposed to be selling.
Toyota sells cars, but to students at Howard University, the company wants to sell the activist resume of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Toyota has apparently partnered with Kaepernick, whose mediocrity has led to him being out of the NFL for five years (and likely forever), playing an ad on the university’s radio station.
According to Toyota, Kaepernick knelt for the national anthem “as a sign of respect to the military.” Which military they mean isn’t clear: Kaepernick thinks the U.S. military is a “weapon wielded by American imperialism, to enforce its policing and plundering of the nonwhite world.” Considering he said that after the United States killed Iranian terrorist Gen. Qassem Soleimani, perhaps Toyota means that he is just a real big fan of Iran’s Quds force.
Toyota also touts Kaepernick’s major NFL accomplishments, including being a “two-time Super Bowl quarterback.” This feat is made all the more impressive when you consider that Kaepernick became a two-time Super Bowl quarterback despite only ever going to one Super Bowl.
Of course, sometimes you have to stretch the truth a little, and how else could Toyota sell … cars?
Luckily for Toyota, the company has options if this ad campaign doesn’t take off. After all, while the Olympics provide China an opportunity to try and sell the world on the idea that it isn’t a genocidal country that constantly violates human rights, it also gives Olympic partner Toyota a chance to sell more cars.
