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Nissan and TBWA/Chiat Day convince Bret Michaels to cover “Endless Love” for new ad

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A new campaign will be launched by Nissan this week for their line of rugged commercial vans in conjunction with TBWA/Chiat Day, which stars American rockstar and Poison frontman, Bret Michaels. The campaign, called “Tough Love”, is centred around a new music video in which Michaels, a hardcore car and motorcycle enthusiast, serenades various Nissan vans at the car manufacturers Arizona testing centre with the classic 80's love song, “Endless Love.” The video revels in everything that made the 80's so delightfully garish, with fire, smoke, and an instrument panel-mounted Bret Michaels bobble head doll. The video (which can be seen below if you dare ) will be backed up by comprehensive digital and print efforts across various social media networks and digital platforms, and the song can be downloaded from the official Nissan USA website.

The “Tough Love” campaign is centred around a new music video in which Michaels serenades various Nissan vans at the car manufacturers Arizona testing centre

The campaign is aimed at small business owners who are looking for durable, efficient cargo and passenger vans. This durability and efficiency is underlined in a series on individual product videos that show the various testing procedures, which manage to compress 13 years of real-world use into just three months. These tests (of which there are more than 6,600) include being put through a 140-degree heat chamber, salt spray tunnel, frame twister, shaker machine, pothole-ridden roads and gruelling brake tests. Many of these tests can also be seen in the music video.

Bret Michaels – Tough Love ft. Nissan NCV

Fred Diaz, senior vice president of Sales & Marketing and Operations for Nissan North America, said that they wanted to “Bring attention to the operational efficiency” of their “Innovative, durable Nissan NV Cargo, NV Passenger and NV200 Cargo vans,” but do so “In a way that gets business owners’ attention.” He says that Michaels, with his reputation as a rock and roll icon, “Was not only a perfect fit for the vehicles, he was also a valued collaborator in developing the Tough Love campaign.” He said that Michaels “Understands the needs of small business owners for trucks you can depend on,” and “Really took an interest in the entire development and testing process.” He also said the Poison singer amazed them during the filming of the spot “By relating experiences from his life to the messages we’re sharing about the durability testing of our lineup of Nissan commercial vehicles.”

Bret Michaels Understands the needs of small business owners for trucks you can depend on,” and “Really took an interest in the entire development and testing process.” Fred Diaz

The spots also serve to illustrate Nissans stance when it comes to its commercial vehicles. They recently started offering a commercial van warranty in America, which increases basic limited warranty coverage from 3 years/36,000 miles to 5 years/100,000 miles (whichever comes first). Diaz adds that they really want to campaign “To show buyers that Nissan builds a van that can keep up and never let the owners down, because when their vans are down, so are their businesses.” He says they're showing that these “Are vehicles owners can depend on year in and year out, through all sorts of conditions.”

Official Nissan USA Website

Official TBWA/Chiat Day Website

Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and musician from the UK who hates glam rock, but owns a Nissan Micra. As a result, he feels oddly conflicted about this peculiar ad.

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