TOYOTA GOES HOLLYWOOD

If you've ever wondered why the Toyota Prius appears in so many television programs, wonder no longer. It's mainly because the producers of these programs want it there.

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The placement of consumer products in entertainment features, known as "brand integration," is a highly developed art. To promote its products' exposure in movies and television, Toyota provides a fleet of vehicles that are offered on loan to film studios. With Prius, much of the placement is driven by demand.

Toyota's first-ever branded entertainment firm, a company called Brand Arc, acts as a primary point of contact between Toyota and the entertainment industry to provide a consistent voice and face to Hollywood.

Brand Arc's Mike Davis says, "Many of the requests we receive are for Prius. We don't have to push it at all. Prius tends to define characters well, so it's attractive to producers."

Prius currently appears in shows on all the major networks, including "Moonlight," "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and "Weeds."

In addition, Brand Arc works closely with talent agencies, studios, producers, game developers, music companies, Web developers and network programmers as partners to help develop and create brand entertainment ideas. Brand Arc also manages and executes the production of all brand entertainment projects.

So stay tuned. You'll see Prius and other Toyota hybrids in lots of interesting places.