Netflix’s “Dancing For the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult” documentary recently went live on the streaming service, and from the looks of it, Toyota is somehow caught up in the madness. The documentary details how Robert Shinn, head of 7M Management and the Shekinah Church, coerced up-and-coming TikTok dancers to join his cult/management team. He would then control their careers and take the majority of the money they made from brand deals and other projects.
Well, as it turns out, Toyota seems to be one of the brands that 7M allegedly did business with. Back in January of 2022, Aubrey Fisher-Greene – a now-former cult member – starred in an ad for the all-new Toyota Corolla Cross. He, along with four other unidentified dancers, performed a choreographed dance in and around the new compact crossover. At the time, it was a very innocuous ad that played up to TikTok trends of the time and did little else to move the Corolla Cross’s needle.
You can watch the full commercial here. It’s been pulled off of YouTube.
Now, with the release of this documentary, the whole thing seems a lot ickier, to say the least. You see, a big part of 7M Management and Shekinah is the fact that 7M controls just about everything these influencers post and do, so it certainly seems like to get this collab done, Toyota would have had to work with 7M. At the very least, Toyota would have had to work with the production companies – Burrell Communication and In & Out Productions – that worked with 7M. We’ve reached out to the automaker for more information, but haven’t heard back yet.
The whole Toyota jump scare came about during one of Shinn’s sermons when he was commending Fisher-Greene for his spot in the then-new Toyota ad.
Back in August of 2022 – just Fisher-Greene left the cult, claiming that Shinn and Shekinah took about 10 percent of his total income, which is much better than most. He told Rolling Stone that Shinne said, “The more you give, the more you receive.”
Jalopnik has reached out to Toyota, Burrell Communication and In & Out Productions for statements, and we will update this story when and if we get responses.
