Toyota’s brand hijacked by rogue mommy blogger

The automaker is taking heat in the blogosphere for trying to bribe mommy bloggers. But, Toyota claims it wasn’t behind the scheme. Continue reading.

The bottom line: Toyota is facing a PR crisis for a gaffe it (allegedly) didn’t commit. The good news for the automaker is that some are celebrating its quick response.

Here’s the scoop.

Several mommy blogger, including the uber-popular Crissy of DearCrissy.com, received an offer from MommyNetworks.org to write good news about Toyota in exchange for a $10 Amazon gift card. Crissy shared the offer with her readers. Here’s an excerpt (the full note is posted on DearCrissy.com):

“There was a big report released about Toyota, by the NHTSA and NASA, stating that there was no electronic flaw found, which was originally assumed to be the cause of all the recalls with the Priuses last year. It actually turned out to be pretty much ‘user error’ that was causing the accelerator to stick.”

The representative from MommyNetworks.org added:

“I need you to:
Write a post about the report & good news In the post,
link to a few of the articles or videos below
If possible, share on social networks or ‘thumbs up’ the YouTube videos.”

In exchange for doing this, the blogger will receive the gift card, the offer said.

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