Nissan Commercial of 7 Day Old Sentra Live-In Doesn’t Stink


Watch the commercial at:
http://www.supercarnews.net/nissan-video/2007-nissan-sentra-commercial-.html

Meet Marc Horowitz, a San Francisco native, he is a photographer’s assistant. He is the main character of Nissan’s new 2007 Sentra campaign. It is taking a younger, documentary approach to their commercials. An article from Ad Week states that “the campaign derived from research photos of 20-30 year old drivers who essentially lived inside their Sentras”, I think its pretty genius thinking. Over 168 hours of footage were filmed over the 7 day period. Some ‘Rules of the Game’ per Ad Week:

During the week, he had to prepare at least four meals in the immediate vicinity of the Sentra; could not set foot outside the car for any reason 12-5 a.m.; and was required to host at least one social function in the car. Horowitz was not allowed to return to his apartment during the seven days. Thompson said the campaign exploits pop culture trends with episodic story structure, real-life adventures, blogging and vlogging.

“Exploiting”? Is that supposed to be a good thing? Well, Nissan says that they are trying to ‘move away from interrupting their consumers and toward creating opportunities to interact with them’, which is important to realize and be able to follow through with; like with this commerical. On the same note, they also said that they are ‘in transition from storytelling to conversation’, which falls right in line with Naked Conversations, point of making the communication between company and consumer more informal and more about the human element.

I like the new approach, the younger, more fun, exciting, and spontaneous side of this concept theme. Its time that Nissan do something to make them stand out from the competition, and this is defiantly something to take about over the water cooler. Although I hate reality shows, and this seems borderline exploitive, when they call it documentary, it sounds so much more artistic, creative, and positive. The commercial feels real due to the footage, and everyone can appreciate a commercial that isn’t shoving things down your throat or trying to finagle you into buying their crap product.

Although there's not alot of information about this ad because its so new, form your own opinions, and let me know what you think.