Nissan Cube Pops Up in Pepsi Super Bowl Commercial
Among the Super Bowl’s half-dozen automotive ads, Nissan might deserve an honorable mention. Halfway through Pepsi’s feel-good “Refresh Anthem” spot, we thought we were seeing a Nissan commercial: The Cube appeared opposite a late-60s Dodge A100 van in what we can only guess was the Venice Beach portion of Pepsi’s Dyl.i.am montage. (It’s 25 degrees outside our Chicago offices. No, we aren’t bitter.) It works, though we wonder how the eight or so beachgoers piling into the Dodge would fare in a five-seat Cube. Maybe Californians are just that much thinner.
We asked Nissan if there was a tie-in. There sure was, spokesman Darryll Harrison said. Pepsi contacted the automaker a few weeks ago to see if they could help with a “modern ‘refresh’ of the boxy, social vehicle,” he said. “We were happy to provide a Cube for the shoot.”
Neither party had to pay the other, Harrison said.
Makes sense, seeing as the agency that created the ad — Los Angeles’ TBWAChiatDay — also represents Nissan. We haven’t heard back yet from either the agency or Pepsi. Though we thought the spot struck a hip-but-affable chord, reaction has been mixed. It came in No. 8 out of 50 Super Bowl commercials ranked in USA Today’s Ad Meter, but as of late Monday it had 3.5 out of five stars in YouTube’s Super Bowl ad user ratings, making it one of only seven commercials (out of 53) to rate under four stars.
