I'm not going to lie. The thing that drew me to Youtube early on was not the copious amount of copyright infringing materials posted to the site, rather the car videos. Before anyone bothered to edit anything together for original content I was mostly watching old car commercials and whatnot. There was one brand that did it better than any other... Nissan in the 1960s-1980s.
Just check out some of these ads...
There was the series R30 Nissan Skyline ads featuring a very awkward Paul Newman. Then in the 90s we had the R33 Skyline ads featuring Tatsuro Yamashita before the internet invented whatever Citypop is. There are also the infamous hippy-dippy Kenmeri Skyline ads of the 1970s. You've probably watched something at some point that reference that series in some capacity.
Before Nissan dominated the Japanese car ad market in the 70s with their slick lifestyle campaigns, there was one final push of sheer force behind their product.
The Nissan Bluebird 510 Sedan...
It's a car which is the sheer definition of car. Three boxes, four doors, four seats, and a steering wheel. I challenge you to find a more basic looking car. There are certainly similar cars from the era, but this is peak generic car. So how do you sell something like that? A comically macho ad of course!
They enlisted the help of a gaggle of men, but one of those men was more than a man...he was an Ultraman! There is no mistaking the face of Susumu Kurobe being the lead Gent of the squad of...engineers? Doctors? Ehhh...it's easy to get hung up on details since newer ads give so much plot. This one doesn't! It's just five dudes (conveniently it's a five-seat vehicle) posing over the earwormiest song you'll ever hear in your entire life.
Style up! Safety up! Accel your heart!!
When it came time for a coupe version of the Bluebird, the band got back together to celebrate it. Beyond that...there isn't much. It's unfortunate that we haven't gotten a better quality version of the ads in all of the years since it's been online, but we'll take what we can get, right?
Beyond the TV ads, there were some print ads featuring Hayate...er...Kurobe.
I just thought it'd be fun to bring up this little blip in the man's career since I never really see it mentioned anywhere. I mean...it's even unconfirmed that it's actually him, but c'mon. He has a pretty unique look and hairline with that widow's peak. He has had such a packed career in the fifty-five years since Ultraman that little footnotes like this really get lost in the shuffle.
Accel your heeeeaaaaarrrtttt~!
-CC
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