I8ABMR

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/09/15/c...-pranking-her/



Anyone out there interested in having a crazy stalker? How about if that stalker had personal information such as your home address, email and phone number? Nope, doesn't sound like much fun to us, either. That's exactly what happened to Amber Duick, a woman from California who claims she was duped into signing up for a five-day stalking, courtesy of the marketing team at Saatchi & Saatchi, on behalf of Toyota.

One of Amber's so-called friends decided it would be funny if she had an online stalker, so he forwarded her an email for a "personality test" that was actually an application to be punked. It was all part of a campaign in 2009 for the Toyota Matrix called "Your Other You."

Duick's made-up "stalker" was named Sebastian Bowler, a 25-year-old soccer fanatic from England with a drinking problem and a pit bull named Trigger. According to a series of emails sent to Duick, Bowler was on his way to her home and planned to sleep on her couch for a few nights after running into problems with the law. Eventually, Duick was informed via an emailed video link that she was being pranked.

Haha, very funny.

Duick sued. Toyota moved to dismiss the case, claiming that Duick had, perhaps unintentionally, agreed to be a part of the campaign by filling out the aforementioned fake personality test. Part of her consent was agreeing that any disputes would be handled outside of court in arbitration, but, a California Appellate judge recently disagreed, ruling that the agreement was invalid because Duick was enticed to sign it under false pretenses. That means the case has cleared its last hurdle before going to trial where Duick is seeking $10 million in damages. Not so funny now, eh?

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

So, Amber's friend pranks her, and she sues Toyota?

I should do that to make $10 mil!

DustinV

Oh come on. Only $ 10 million? What about those emotional scars you have suffered as a result of this? Or the fact that when you see a Toyota vehicle cruising slowly past your house you begin to sweat and suffer from uncontrollable convulsions.

$ 10 million? Go for $ 20 million!

kikcaffine

iTrader: (3)

Bogus, thats everything wrong with this country.

PhantomZX

I'm siding with the woman on this one. I think Toyota went way over the line and should have used better judgement. The amount she's asking for is too much IMO, so hopefully that gets reduced to a more reasonable amount.

There are more details about this story here:
http://jalopnik.com/5839556/woman-pu...for-10-million

jadu

iTrader: (42)

sued over a prank wow. it's like all of Ashton Kutcher's victims suing him and his team for punking them on Punk'd

mmarshall

And we wonder why new cars cost so much.

The more auto companies pay out in court-settlements, the more they have to charge for their products to make it up. Even if the settlements are covered by the manufacturer's liability-insurance, the company's premiums will likely go up.

Like it or not, there's no free lunch.

PhantomZX

A Punk'd prank doesn't last for more than a few minutes...this woman was made to feel stalked for 5 days.

acheparev

Terrorizing someone for 5 days is different the scaring the bejeezus out of someone for a few minutes. It's not Toyota's fault, but the company they hired for their marketing campaign.

I remember a couple years ago some marketing company put black boxes with blinking lights all over New York City; under bridges, on buildings, in subway stations. You can imagine the reaction it got from the city.

vwynn

iTrader: (4)

just give her a $100,000 per day she was stalked n call it a day. Stop being so greedy AMERICANTS... sigh.

levie

iTrader: (1)

wow, 10 million seems like way to much in my opinion. like c'mon. and maybe she should have read before she agreed to it. imo.

Justin2JZ

Ok wait let me get this straight... a "friend" sent her the email with a link inside. Why is she not attempting to sue this friend? Yes Toyota picked the wrong ad agency for a campaign but 10million dollars worth of wrong no. Give her a grand say sorry and be done with it.

lamar411

this is why America has gone down the drain,

BoDarville

this reminds me of the time i inadvertently agreed to something i didn't read, and ended up being the middle cog in apple's new "humancentipad". why couldn't he have simply chosen to eat the vanilla paste?

suislide

that was a good episode. now i read the agreements before I press "Agree" LOL