Car Commercial - Follow Up (14. July 2008, 12:05 by Derek Young) ~ Shiny

So, shortly after posting the “Car Commercial” notice we found last week, we discovered similar notices all over town. Opera Alley. Dock Street. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it downtown this weekend to see the fancy new car do laps around town. Well …

A lovely Exit133 reader sent us these pics:


The thing to note in the bottom photo.

1. The shiny new car is in the bottom right corner. It appears, to our untrained eyes, to be the 2009 Lexus IS F 2009 Acura TL. Click on the photo for a larger version.

2. In the bottom left corner are the car commercial people yelling and running toward our intrepid photographer. With all the chaos down below their condo, she felt like taking a picture or two. “No Pictures!“ The car folks then turned the cameras on our reader’s window and started taking pictures of her as she looked out. They talked to the cops and looked up at her window some more. Later, she looked out the window and saw that the car folks had a spotter in place to keep an eye on her. In our reader’s words … “Creepy mofos.”

Anybody else get photos? If so, send them our way.

Thank you, Elizastan

Previously On Exit133

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The car folks then turned the cameras on our reader’s window and started taking pictures of her as she looked out. Later, they looked out the window and saw that the car folks had a spotter in place to keep an eye on her window.

It’s tough to do much in downtown Tacoma unusual without someone taking a picture of it and posting it. Especially for events in the street and after posting notice about it.

1 | Posted by Erik B. | Jul 14, 12:20 PM

Pretty sure that’s an Acura. Maybe the new TL, if I’m not mistaken. This would explain the secrecy (and yelling), as the upcoming model is a complete revamp,and they probably didn’t want more spyshots of it on the Web.

2 | Posted by Roger | Jul 14, 12:25 PM

I think you’re correct about it being the new Acura. We were being biased by folks reportedly telling people they were in town to film a Lexus commercial.

3 | Posted by Derek | Jul 14, 12:28 PM

It was definitely the new Acura. I watched it from my balcony go about 60 mph in reverse – it was really cool and impressive – if I tried a maneuver like that I would take out just about every car on my block! Evidently Road and Driver or whatever those car mags are called will pay big money to get first pictures of the car – but they don’t want anyone else getting pictures so they had some super high tech stealth military sensor on the car that could tell if it was being photographed –

4 | Posted by laura Hanan | Jul 14, 01:19 PM

Lots of aspects of this don’t make sense to me.

First, they advertise that a new car commercial will be shot.

Then, they get upset when people actually show up with cameras?’

Seems more like they are trying to get free publicity to me, and by getting agitated, they make it appear that they don’t want you to do exactly what you’re doing.

It’s called guerrilla marketing.

If a major car company didn’t want you to see their new car, you would not see it.

5 | Posted by Roland | Jul 14, 01:23 PM

First, they advertise that a new car commercial will be shot.

They didn’t really advertise. It was more like a public notice because the streets were going to be closed and cars weren’t allowed to park in designated areas during that time.

The word from Jalopnik is that it’s the 2009 TL Type S.

6 | Posted by Derek | Jul 14, 01:28 PM

Public place = photos legal. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I hate when photographer’s rights are put in question by commercial interests. If they didn’t want you see their new car they’d shoot on a closed set.

7 | Posted by KevinFreitas | Jul 14, 01:52 PM

Kevin’s right, they had no right to tell you not to take pictures. The fact that they thought they could complain to the cops about it is troubling – Tacoma police are terrible about harassing photographers. I swear I get hassled more in this town for having a camera than anywhere else I’ve ever lived.

8 | Posted by Elliot | Jul 14, 02:07 PM

You’re all right. They’re asking for trouble if they do this in a public place and announce it ahead of time. Duh.

Snap away!

9 | Posted by Brother Bluto | Jul 14, 03:03 PM

If they expect to come here and abrogate our rights, perhaps they could have found a better place to shoot their commercial. North Korea comes to mind.

10 | Posted by Dave | Jul 14, 03:11 PM

This really raises my libertarian ire. Exactly which law is it that says you can’t take photos from your property any time I want? Next time this happens, keep shooting those pix. I will help pay for bail and a good attorney.

11 | Posted by Steven | Jul 14, 03:24 PM

Nice mention on Jalopnik for both Exit133 and Tacoma. Way to go Derek! I think car companies secretly love when ‘spy photos’ get published. Drives up anticipation of their new product. Definitely an over-reaction by the crew on set.

12 | Posted by Tacomite | Jul 14, 03:52 PM

What’s really disgusting about this is that the camera crew should know full well that it was perfectly legal to take photos… and yet still tried to get the police to do something about it. Who the hell do they think they are?

Assholes.

13 | Posted by Dave | Jul 14, 04:37 PM

Nobody said they tried to get the police to do anything… you assume. They could have asked the police some questions about the building. I’m sure they know they can’t control people’s cameras. They didn’t stick around long after the commotion anyway. They may have owned the street for a few hours but not the light reflecting off it and into a camera lens.

14 | Posted by shingst | Jul 14, 06:53 PM

why is the car wearing a burka? this is the dumbest car commercial ever. I hope they all die a thousand deaths, the infidels!

15 | Posted by RR Anderson | Jul 14, 07:09 PM

So given all the attention coming from the Acura forums, Jalopnik, and the amount of time that the car supposedly spent underneath its ‘burka’, it would seem that the car folks had something special and hoped to get out without any superfluous photos. Whether they knew what was legal or not, they definitely tried to intimidate.

So ... these photos wouldn’t have ever surfaced if the crew had just been calm and didn’t act so aggressive. It was the freak out that persuaded our friend to send us these photos.

Just to let you know, the freak out that occurred on the street when the camera came out the window was significant according to a pair of witnesses. All of it directed at our camera toting friend. However, to TPD’s credit, during said freak out, they just shrugged their shoulders while the car folks went back to yelling and taking pictures of the new-to-Tacoma photographer’s window. Welcome to Tacoma!

16 | Posted by Derek | Jul 14, 08:19 PM

as both gay and Muslim, I take great offense to the zionist acura spin-mavens use of a burka which should only be used to conceal the sinful bodies of women. Why the very idea of dressing a car like a woman is a gigantic insult man loving car owners everywhere.

It is time to declare holy jihad on Acura(s) across the nation.

wo wo wo wo wo! hand/flapping over mouth sound effect

17 | Posted by RR Anderson | Jul 14, 08:42 PM

So… I’m curious to see if they use the photos they took of the new Tacoma resident in their new commercial. Maybe that was all part of their grand plan.

18 | Posted by morgan | Jul 14, 09:45 PM

Congrats. Other media is picking up on the Exit 133 story.

We’ve already had a good first look at the 2009 Acura TL so when we got a tip from Exit133 that they had a long-range photo of the new TL being used for a commercial in Tacoma we weren’t hopeful there would be much news

19 | Posted by Erik B. | Jul 14, 10:37 PM

Yeah stick it to the man! I’m glad to see that people aren’t bending over backwards to serve some stupid car company’s every whim. just cause were a smallish city doesn’t mean you can use and abuse us. we’ll have our pictures thank you very much.

20 | Posted by Michael | Jul 15, 01:22 AM

Unless it gets 100 miles per gallon or runs on celery sticks and grass, I don’t want one no matter how potentially sexy it is under it’s birka.

21 | Posted by altered chords | Jul 15, 08:36 AM

Derek @ 16
I live in the same building the photos were taken from and heard a lot of what happened, and just think people are over reacting.
Of course they freaked out, it makes sense they would considering what they were trying to do. All the yelling, screaming and pointing was to let the film crew know they had bogey on their six and needed to shake it before they were shot down. I didn’t hear any threats of intimidation… and the spotter was most likely to let the film crew know they could continue filming.
Don’t you think people w/ camera’s can be intimidating / aggressive ( paparazzi perhaps )??
If I had been the one taking the photos I’d have waved back and smiled… but I didn’t have the smarts that day to have my camera out.
Nice job Elizastan, its to bad nobody got the photo of the 2nd covered car.

22 | Posted by shingst | Jul 15, 09:30 AM

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