Toyota may be based in Japan, but it wants to make sure Americans know that Toyota cars sold in the U.S. increasingly are also manufactured in the U.S., including many in Kentucky.
To get that word out, it’s spending more than $10 million on a national ad campaign that began this week. At the same time, Toyota has launched a separate campaign called “Kentucky Driven” to drive home its ties and commitment to the Bluegrass State.

Toyota’s market research shows that many people don’t realize the extent of Toyota’s manufacturing presence in the United States, said Dennis Cuneo, senior vice president of Toyota Motor North America Inc.

Toyota established Erlanger-based Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America Inc. in 1996 to oversee its manufacturing operations in North America. Since then, the company has built six new manufacturing plants on the continent. That’s in addition to its plant in Georgetown, Ky., opened in 1986 and still the automaker’s largest plant in North America, employing more than 7,000 people.

Employment at its North American plants has doubled over the past 10 years to more than 36,000.

“A lot of people still think of us as an import company,” Cuneo said. However, more than half the cars Toyota sells in the United States each year are made in this country. “We think with our significant manufacturing base now, we’re beyond that.”

The corporate ad campaign coincides with a presidential election campaign in which unemployment, job creation, offshore outsourcing and foreign trade have been major issues. But the Toyota campaign isn’t necessarily a reaction to electoral politics.

“Jobs are always an important issue,” Cuneo said.

Toyota began running corporate ad campaigns some 15 years ago, he said. A few years ago, the campaign focused on the environment.

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