Toyota's Scion brand, known for its basic vehicle designs that buyers can customize with style and performance options, recently offered a custom theme for jailbroken iPhones in order to promote the new 2011 Scion tC. Shortly after the campaign started, however, Toyota had its mobile advertising agency pull the theme and ads promoting it from the Cydia jailbreak store after Apple caught wind of the campaign. The move appears to be an effort to keep high-profile companies like Toyota using official channels, such as iAd, to reach iOS users.

Apple enthusiast site ModMyi.com had been working with Velti, a mobile advertising firm that was also contracted by Toyota to promote the Scion brand online. ModMyi.com founder Kyle Matthews said in a forum post that the two companies had discussions about building a custom iOS jailbreak theme to promote the new tC as far back as April of last year. (Themes are a collection of interface modifications for iOS, which can include custom icons, fonts, background images, and other stylistic changes.) Velti had apparently seen a connection between iPhone users who jailbreak their devices to install custom themes and car buyers that would be interested in a brand built around customizations, which led to the collaboration.

Matthews noted that the Scion tC theme was released in February this year, but ModMyi.com began running ads promoting the theme (available from the jailbreak Cydia Store) at the end of March. The ad campaign and a ModMyi.com article discussing the collaboration with Velti eventually caught the attention of the tech press, which led to Apple learning of the promotion.

Apple reportedly requested that Toyota remove the theme from the Cydia Store and stop the advertising campaign. Velti then contacted ModMyi.com Monday night to pull the theme and ads. Toyota gave in to Apple's request in order to "maintain their good relationship with Apple," a Velti representative told Matthews.

It's hard to say what particular relationship Toyota has with Apple, and company representatives did not respond to our request for comment as of publication time. Neither Toyota nor Scion appear to be running iAd campaigns at this time, but both brands do offer iPod integration on some car models. Whatever the case, Apple has effectively put a stop to Toyota marketing directly to jailbreakers.

Matthews suggested that Apple's request is a direct attack on the jailbreak scene. It's no secret that Apple wishes jailbreaking didn't exist; the company tried unsuccessfully to have jailbreaking ruled illegal and continually plugs security exploits that make the practice possible. At one point, Apple even tired implementing a jailbreak detection API. However, it's just as likely that Apple is trying to keep its partners using official channels, such as Apple's own iAd mobile advertising service. Letting a partner like Toyota target jailbreakers directly could be seen as an implicit approval of such practices, not to mention that Apple doesn't get a cut from ad campaigns served over non-iAd channels.