The murderous hatred being directed toward Toyota's "Saved by Zero" ads has been building for a few weeks now, and it's become semi-official with this Associated Press story. A number of Web sites—Esquire, Best Week Ever, Consumerist and Jalopnik among them—have been hosting rants about the ads, which feature the admittedly awful 1983 song "Saved by Zero" by British new-wave group The Fixx. By and large, viewers feel an urge to end their own lives and/or other people's when the ads come on: "It makes me want to kill someone/never ever buy a Toyota." "Marketing 101, don't piss consumers off, don't get on their bad sides, don't cultivate contempt." "I CAN'T EVEN EXPRESS MY OUTRAGE WITHOUT USING CAPS LOCK." Clearly it's the feel-bad campaign of the year, and from a company (and industry) that doesn't need any extra help in hurtling down the crapper.

—Posted by Tim Nudd