Is Toyota's party a marketing ploy or a benefit?

According to this story in the Chicago Tribune (our regrets that we can only link to the pay-for-play archive), Toyota is spending $800,000 for a day in the park. The automaker is paying the city for a private party in Millennium Park, the city’s $490 million lakefront collection of gardens and art centered around a Frank Gehry-designed amphitheater, on Thursday, Sept. 8. Toyota’s payment includes signs in the park and acknowledgments in the brochures, but the automaker described most of the outlay as a straight donation.