User:Donnie Park/Toys (advertisement)

Toys, also known as Barbie and Ken was a series of American stop motion television advertisement launched in 1996 to encourage sale of the 300ZX Z32 of the Nissan Z-car, known within the Japanese domestic market as the Fairlady Z..

part of the $200 million campaign starring Dale Ishimoto as Nissan's honorary president Yutaka Katayama, who was credited for the sucess of Nissan in the United States. to the tune of You Really Got Me, a cover version of the Kinks' song by Van Halen

Despite it's success, winning awards, it failed to prevent falling sales that cumulated with Nissan discontinuing the car from the US market. Additionally, Mattel launched a successful lawsuit against Nissan over it's negative portrayal of it's characters.

Background
The 300ZX was successful upon it' launch in 1989, it appeared in Car and Driver's 10 Best list throughout it's production life but with low sales (3000 cars in 1995 and 1996) and buyers turning towards SUVs, two-seater sports cars fell out of favor with consumers. Many of Nissan's equally complex and expensive competitors faced the axe caused by the rising yen such as the Toyota Supra and Mazda RX-7.

Sequence
G.I. Joe escapes from the jaws of a dinosaur to get to his 300ZX

drives to a large dollhouse where he makes a calls Barbie out, who then comes o

Barbie, when get dressed up, gets into his car and drives off, leaving Ken

Reception
Despite it's success, winning awards, it failed to prevent falling sales that cumulated with Nissan discontinuing the car from the US market. Additionally, Mattel launched a successful lawsuit against Nissan over it's negative portrayal of it's characters.

This with the other Mr K. series of commercials that included Dream Garage, Enjoy the Ride and Dogs Loves Trucks was amongst those that provoked a series of criticisms from the media who questioned validity of featuring models that was or faced discontinuation bundled into a rather serious investment in advertising.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ELV9d12hHg http://www.vhnd.com/2009/11/10/flashback-nissan-commercial-featuring-van-halen/
 * Two commercials by automobile company Nissan featuring dolls similar to Barbie and Ken was the subject of another lawsuit in 1997. In the first commercial, a female doll is lured into a car by a doll resembling G.I. Joe to the dismay of a Ken-like doll, accompanied by Van Halen's "You Really Got Me". In the second commercial, the "Barbie" doll is saved by the "G.I. Joe" doll after she is accidentally knocked into a swimming pool by the "Ken" doll to Kiss's "Dr. Love".  The makers of the commercial said that the dolls' names were Roxanne, Nick, and Tad.  Mattel claimed that the commercial did "irreparable damage" to its products,  but settled.