When a manufacturer produces an item they want to sell, they often try to attract more than one type of buyer. This is especially true when dealing with a high-cost item like a car. In addition to representing a significant expense, for many people in our society the vehicle they drive reflects their personality and how they want to be seen by others. I would like to look at two different ads for the Toyota Prius. Because these are commercials made for television, they have a wider choice of mediums to address an audience than those available in a print advertisement. Mainly, of course, the images we see on the screen. Secondly, we are influenced by the words spoken by the narrator. Finally, the music chosen as background music can have more influence than we think. These elements must all work together and in a very short space of time to produce the response of dissatisfaction with current circumstances and the desire for the car as a solution to that dissatisfaction. Both commercials are 30 seconds long and, unlike a print commercial, when viewed in the intended television medium there is no need to stop to take a closer look at something that catches your attention. The Toyota Prius "Harmony" ad is the older of the two, first released around May 2009. The initial impression of this ad is that it is aimed at an older group, primarily baby boomers. The advert has a very "hippie" feel. The commercial opens with the car traveling out of the city and into the countryside, returning to nature. The environment is initially practically colorless, the landscape is white or gray as if buried in snow. As the Prius travels across the countryside, its headlights are equated to the sunrise in the... center of the paper... what I noticed was that none of the adverts made any mention of costs. The vast majority of car commercials talk about sales prices, advantageous packages or super low interest rates. At the very least they usually refer to a starting price somewhere. None of these ads reference costs in any way; no reference to vehicle price, price comparison to similar vehicles, or potential fuel cost savings. These ads are aimed solely at filling a perceived need and assume that if the need exists, price doesn't matter. From this point of view it can be deduced that the target group is made up of buyers who are probably financially stable and who can have as much impact on who responds to adverts as on anything else. I think the overall lighthearted vibe of both ads allows Toyota to pursue a new generation of buyers without alienating the old ones.