Damn it, Toyota, you ALMOST got that holiday commercial right.

Yeah, I can be an annoying little wiseacre when it comes to historic dramas. I really can. If you can’t get the historic facts accurate on your TV drama, it’s going to take me completely out of the “suspension of disbelief” to the point where I’m not watching a TV show, but I’m instead watching actors in a TV show.

“Pan Am,” “The Playboy Club,” and other period dramas that don’t get the history right – and why they don’t care

That being said, I saw a brand new “holiday commercial” the other day. You know … the ones that give you all the warm fuzzy feelings and catch your emotions. Heck, I blogged about Chevrolet’s series of holiday ads, which keep getting better every single year.

Chevrolet with the winning holiday commercial of 2023.

Now here comes Toyota’s answer to the “share the holiday emotions” commercial series. A girl is gifted her grandmother’s old camera and photos, and the girl takes that camera and goes on a photography journey. The advert is called “Present from the Past,” and yeah it’s definitely got the emotional pull.

And I watched this advert … and just as I was about to gush about how great it was and that I would sell my Chevrolet and buy the first Toyota I see …

I realized that the commercial made some big photography boo-boos.

Okay. Let’s start with what they got right. The girl is working with a vintage Pentax camera with a colored strap. Totally correct for the camera’s age. And she even uses the camera’s self-timing lever to get a selfie. That’s what that self-timing lever is for. 

But then there are the scenes where she’s developing her photos. In a darkroom. With curtained windows. Curtained windows that are lighting up the room.

And she’s doing an incredible job of developing color prints in a tray for black and white developing techniques. Heck, maybe she can reverse-engineer home-brew Kodachrome development while she’s at it. 

Oh, man. That just completely ruined the commercial. I’m sorry. It just did. Come on, Toyota. You had a chance to capture all that nostalgia … and you basically misunderstood how home-developed photos work. 

I bet your fully electric cars have tail pipes, don’t they?

Sorry, guys. Maybe it’s true that Toyota is an acronym for The One You Ought To Avoid.  :D