Nissan Ad Campaign Will Tout Its Revival

Nissan North America will introduce today a major advertising campaign aimed at persuading motorists that its much-vaunted revival is a success.

The campaign is part of an estimated $1.5-billion-plus global image make-over ordered by Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn. It comes in the midst of the most widely watched auto industry resuscitation since Chrysler’s 1970s comeback.

Unlike Chrysler, which depended on a government bailout, Tokyo-based Nissan has turned around on the strength of a massive cost-cutting program and a huge product revival ordered by Ghosn.

Nissan was facing insolvency in 1998, but posted a record profit last year. Ghosn, a Renault executive known for charismatic yet tight-fisted leadership, took the reins at Nissan after the French auto maker acquired controlling interest in the then-distressed company in late 1998.

The ad campaign drops Nissan’s longtime “Driven” theme for a new one-word message: “Shift.”

In U.S. and Canadian TV, print and outdoor ads to be launched Sept. 4, Gardena-based Nissan North America will urge consumers to “shift” their attitudes and even their lives. Cost of the campaign by Nissan’s longtime agency TBWA/Chiat/Day is expected to eclipse the almost $700 million Advertising Age estimates Nissan spent last year on U.S. ads.

The ads feature images of active people, including youthful snow boarders, elderly marathon runners and a female rock climber with prosthetic legs, followed by a montage of Nissan vehicles. The ad text and commentary urge people to shift their expectations, fears, passions, their entire world--or at least the way they move through it. The unspoken suggestion is that they also should shift their automotive allegiance to Nissan.

The same theme also will be used in all Nissan advertising in Europe and Asia.

The campaign coincides with the U.S. launch of the Nissan Z sports car, a long-awaited revival of the company’s iconic two-seater. It is one of six new or redesigned cars and trucks that Nissan North America will launch over the next 16 months.

The public will get a sneak peak in one of the commercials of one product, the mid-size Murano sport utility vehicle to be introduced in December.

Other new Nissan products coming next year are a redesigned Maxima sedan, a Z convertible, a redesigned Quest minivan and the company’s first full-size pickup and full-size sport utility vehicle.