Kurt Verlin
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Toyota “Stand Together” Ad Voted Best of 2016 Rio Olympics

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Girl holds medal winner's hand in Toyota ad

If you watched the 2016 Rio Olympics on NBC this month, you may have found, as I did, that the coverage was extremely disappointing. In fact, I disliked it so much that I went as far as to say that an uplifting Toyota ad shown during the airing of the opening ceremony may have been the only redeeming quality of the coverage.

Turns out, I wasn’t the only one to think so about that topic either: according to the 145,000 fans who voted in the first-ever USA Today Sports Rio Ad Meter bracket competition, Toyota’s “Stand Together” ad was by far their favorite among 31 others, including ads from Coca-Cola, Samsung, Nissan, Mini, Visa, and many more—even ads that featured Michael Phelps and Simone Biles.

The bracket pit two ads against each other in multiple elimination rounds, eventually arriving to a final showdown between Toyota’s “Stand Together” and Hershey’s “Hello From Home.” To get there, the Toyota ad beat Nissan’s “Bolt Vs Flame,” Nike’s “Unlimited You,” USA Swimming’s “Swim United,” and Mini’s “Defy Labels,” in that order. It finally took the overall win against Hershey’s admittedly lovely ad with 59% of the votes.

No doubt one of the reasons the Toyota ad was so liked was that it celebrated the power of teamwork and unity, one of the main themes behind the Olympics themselves. The Olympic Games are rare events that bring the world together regardless of political animosity and conflict. This coming together, combined with being able to get a glimpse of the greatest athletes in the world, is the driving force behind why people tuned in to NBC in August.

And… well, I’ll have to cut this article short before I start to rant again.

Source: USA Today