Toyota Donating A Million Meals Thanks To YouTube Publicity Stunt

Toyota has come up with a brilliant YouTube marketing campaign that will both improve the company’s image and help out a worthwhile cause. It is make a viral impact with ‘Meals Per Hour‘, a branded video that is responsible for more than a million donations to the New York Food Bank, which is still assisting New York City residents who were devastated by Hurricane Sandy.

The video makes note of the collaborative efforts between the Food Bank and Toyota, and the car company has pledged to donate a meal for every view the video receives (and yes, it’s legit). At first, it only pledged 250,000 meals, but after the video became a viral smash, that total rose to a million (in addition to the 250,000 already donated). The video is closing in on a million views, so it will soon eclipse the maximum total.

‘Meals Per Hour’ is a brilliant use of branded YouTube content. The cost for Toyota to donate the meals will easily be outweighed by the brand visibility and positive reception the video will create. Plus, the video is directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, who most recently directed Paranormal Activity 4. With ‘Meals Per Hour’, they are proving that they can do much better than subpar horror films.