• Ad Age, Thursday, August 6, 2009 10:42 AM

A Toyota Motor Sales USA spokesman concedes that a press release issued by Toyota Motor's Tokyo headquarters last week is causing a "great deal of confusion" among agencies here but says "reports that all agencies will be fired and the all the work brought in-house are totally off base." Mike Michels goes on to describe the creation of two marketing companies as "an internal reorganization of the existing global marketing organization."

The Toyota announcement on July 28 that it was setting up one company to handle marketing within Japan and another company to "carry out and assist global marketing" has staffers at U.S. agencies Saatchi & Saatchi, Team One, Dentsu America and ZenithOptimedia scratching their heads at best and in a panicked and confused state at worst, Rupal Parekh and Jean Halliday report.

But in a reassuring memo to employees, Team One CEO Kurt Ritter, which handles Lexus, points out that that neither [Toyota Motor Sales USA] nor its agencies are mentioned in the press release. "I am sharing this information with all of you to alleviate any concerns," he writes.

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