The clouds are looming around Toyota in this picture of taken outside a showroom in Sofia, Bulgaria, Feb. 4, 2010. (Stoyan Nenov/Reuters)

Can Toyota Digg its way out of recall crisis?

The reeling Japanese automaker turns from old school PR to new media.

By Thomas Mucha
Published: February 7, 2010 09:07 ET

CHICAGO — As Toyota careened from one recall crisis to the next, the contrast was almost funny.

In one corner, we had pure Kabuki theater — a highly-stylized corporate drama playing out on the world stage.

At a hastily-called news conference in Nagoya on Feb. 5, Akio Toyoda — Toyota president and grandson of the company's legendary founder Kiichiro Toyoda...

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