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Monday, February 7, 2011

Voice of the Ocean: James Lipton Interviews Octopus About Toyota Prius

From USAToday.com
February 3, 2011



Toyota has enlisted interviewer James Lipton for some entertaining videos to try to drum up more interest in its campaign to pick the correct way of saying the plural of the Prius hybrid sedan. His interview with Randall -- "don't call me Randy" -- the talking octopus came up with, naturally, Prii. (Octopus, octopi, Prius ... we knew you'd get it.)

The deadpan Lipton is known from his gig as host of Inside the Actors Studio in which he interviews movie stars in front of an audience of acting students. The series runs on Bravo. You can see his Prius video above or by clicking here.

Actually, it's a whole series of videos in which Lipton's search takes him through a series of interviews, from William Shakespeare to a rapper to an octopus. The gag is that each interviewee picks their own favorite for the plural for saying the name of the nation's leading hybrid car. Toyota created the campaign to try to show off its permutations of the original Prius -- an all-electric version, a wagon and a smaller sporty model. All are due to hit showroom in the next year as part of the Prius "family" of vehicles.

Toyota invites votes on which version of the Prius plural is the most proper. It says it will use the most popular choice in its advertising. As of today, Prii was the favorite with 46% of the vote. You can see all the vote totals by clicking on the Toyota ad at right. Way to go, Randy, er, Randall!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I figure a car isn't so much "Prius" in its entirety as it is a Prius-make, or scion of the House of Prius.

If so, "of Prius" would do nicely. My latin is very rusty; does "Priusi" sound right? And now the most wild conjecture I have: Priusensia!

k said...

but but but octopi is not -technically- correct! :o(

Liz Granite: BREAKER said...

Priusensia sounds so pretty LOL Way too fancy for a bunch of er, um, Priusesesesiuses.