‘Saved by Zero’ ad irritates TV watchers

NEW YORK — Any car shoppers left in this brutal market are sure to cheer Toyota’s decision to extend zero-percent financing for another month. But another decision may have them hitting the mute button: The automaker will keep airing a television ad for the deal that has sparked some serious ire among TV viewers.

Maybe it’s the giant floating red zero in the middle of the screen. Maybe it’s the way, one by one, the 11 vehicles included in the incentive zoom into the foreground.

Surely, the cheery, twangy “Saved by Zero” jingle (It’s a cover of a 1983 song by the rock group “The Fixx.”) has something to do with it, along with the way Toyota Motor Corp. has saturated prime-time sporting events with the 30-second spot.

Whatever it is, Facebook groups, bloggers and other TV watchers have risen up against the Japanese automaker’s ad with gleeful rage.

“It’s pretty much unanimous that everyone I’ve talked with thinks it’s very annoying,” said Colin Anderson, a 19-year-old freshman at the State University of New York at Binghamton.

He created the Facebook group “Stop Playing Toyota’s ’Saved by Zero’ Commercial” after first seeing it a week and a half ago.

The group has since swelled to more than 1,200 members and is growing.

Anderson said the ad alone isn’t what irritates him — it’s the way it dominates the commercial breaks during sporting events.

Toyota said Monday the “Saved by Zero” ad will continue airing nationally through Sunday.

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