The U.S. office of Toyota has posted a video on YouTube dedicated to the various purchase options, including leasing, and flashed a sedan in one of the frames that a number of media took for a hint that a new Camry was coming to the market. The carmaker had to comment and apologize.
The video featured a book called The Amazing Toyota with a red saloon on the cover looking a bit like the Camry, but with an eclectic front end inspired by the marque’s other recent models, from the Crown to the Prius. The bumper and grille in particular, as well as the sculpted hood and the headlight layout, were nothing like those of the current-gen Camry.
This had led some media to assume that a radical transformation was coming to the Camry lineup. After several popular websites reprinted the news, Toyota had to come out with an official disclaimer.
Apparently, the company’s financial department hired a third-party subcontractor who had no access to the design sketch database. Rather than contacting Toyota for some relevant images to use in the advertisement, the designer simply googled an image – which proved to be a 3D rendering by an independent artist – and put it into the ad, not realizing that it wasn’t even official.