Guerrilla ad campaign hits new low after terrified woman thought she was being hunted by a stalker... who turned out to be Toyota

From the what were they thinking department:

They targeted her in a creepy, stalker-themed online advertising stunt - but now the joke is on them.

Toyota and Saatchi & Saatchi are being sued for $10 million after marketeers launched a prank campaign of terror against an unsuspecting woman.

Amanda Duick, from California, first filed papers against the car-maker and ad agency two years ago over the intrusive 'Your Other You' campaign.

Now a court in the U.S has ruled the defendants' claim that she unknowingly agreed to the whole thing was invalid.

Miss Duick's nightmare started when she began receiving frightening e-mails day after day from a strange man.

The man had her home address and appeared to be a 25-year-old beer-guzzling English football hooligan.

He told her he was on the run from the law and needed to hide out at her place with his pit bull Trigger.

But 'Sebastian Bowler' was in fact a fictional character made up by advertising staff.

[. . .]

Unknown to Duick, someone had signed her up for the campaign at YourOtherYou.com, a web site set up for the prank.

The campaign was aimed at 20-something males because Toyota's advertising firm, Saatchi & Saatchi LA, believed men of that age like to prank their friends.

Anyone signing up could choose one of five fictional characters – among them a heavy metal fanatic and a football hooligan.

The character would then barrage the designated friend with text messages, phone calls, e-mails and videos for five days.

The aim was to freak out the friend by making him or her think the stranger possessed personal information about the target - phone number, home address - and was on his way to visit.

And really, where does the actual car come in? We are selling cars, right, Toyota? This has to be, must be, one of the worst advertising campaigns ever conceived, and I'm astonished it was actually executed. I'm not sure who is more culpable, the people who came up with this brainstorm or the car execs who green-lighted it. Both companies might want to audit their "refreshments" budgets: there's a distinct possibility they need reigning in.

Fake English soccer hooligan created by Saatchi and Saatchi for "guerrilla" Toyota ad campaign.