2016 Nissan Maxima Previewed In Super Bowl Ad
February 2nd, 2015 12:03 AM
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Hit the jump to watch the full 90 second ad. It’s worth it.
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As a dad, that song never fails to makes me feel guilty. The car is decidedly ho-hum, but I find the mom in the ad exceptionally beautiful.
Harry Chapin died in a car accident. Using one of his songs in a car commercial seems a little strange.
You know how some people hear Springsteen's Born in the USA and they're all singing along, as loud as they can, in patriotic fervor? It's because they don't understand the real meaning of the song. It is not a celebration of America, it is a condemnation of its past and present policies. Likewise, Chapin's Cat's in the Cradle, used in the context of a commercial - consumerism - also is a case of "not getting it." The song is a lamentation of a child's lost relationship with his father -- who is off working, being busy, not being "present" even when he is home. And in the end, the son ends up being "just like you, Dad," uninvolved and distant in his own children's lives. So in the Nissan spot, we have a race car driver who is always away from his son and wife, racing while his son watches from afar, wanting to be "just like you, Dad." And by the end of the spot, Chapin's lament is cured with - tada - a new car! As pointed out above, it's already tone-deaf to use this song by an artist who died in a car crash for a car ad. But it's equally tone-deaf to use a song about absentee fatherhood to promote absentee fatherhood salved by a car. Just fail on so many levels. Almost as bad as the Cadillac Escalade commercial using David Bowie's song Fame. Uh, guys, Bowie's interpretation of fame isn't what you think it is. It's not a celebration of fame, but a condemnation of the artificiality associated with it. Like the Nissan spot, just plain dumb choice. But hey, if most Americans wanna sing Born in the USA as loud as they can while waving the flag, ad agencies who assume consumer ignorance can't be all wrong.
No matter how nice the car is, I just don't know where the Maxima fits in Nissan's lineup. It's basically squeezed in between the Altima and the Infiniti G series...