Following a series of reports about Toyota's recent recall woes, a conglomerate of dealers covering five Southeastern states including North Carolina has pulled its advertising from ABC stations.
Locally, ABC 11 general manager John Idler confirmed that the decision by Southeast Toyota affected the station, but he declined to offer specifics about how much advertising was canceled.
According to the New York Times, Southeast Toyota's marketing firm attributed the decision to pull the ads to "excessive stories on the Toyota issues." Southeast Toyota represents 173 dealers in Florida, Georgia,
Alabama, and North and South Carolina. The company's Web site says those dealers sell approximately 20 percent of all Toyotas sold in the United States.
Triangle dealers tell us that they buy advertising time themselves in addition to the ads run by Southeast Toyota, so you may still see some of their independent ads despite the move by SET.
Retail reporter Sue Stock came to the N&O in 2004 and has been covering retail and shopping in the Triangle since then. She is the author of the popular