• The New York Times, Friday, October 6, 2006 1:33 PM

In an effort to burnish the image of the 2007 Sentra as a hip, contemporary, urbane automobile, Nissan is breaking a new campaign. It features 30-year-old comedian Marc Horowitz living in the car for seven days. The results of Horowitz's week in the Sentra this past summer are targeted to consumers in their 20s and 30s--mostly in the media forms they favor, which include MySpace, TiVo, video clips meant to be shared with friends, and the video shorts known as Webisodes. The shorts and a diarylike blog kept by Mr. Horowitz are posted on a dedicated Web site (nissanusa.com/7days) with features about the car. Although the $40-$50 million campaign includes old school media--featuring TV, print and outdoor ads--"traditional is not the core of the campaign, it's part of the campaign," says Jan Thompson, vice president for marketing at Nissan North America. The Sentra has become a "deal" car rather than a "desired" car, says Rob Schwartz, executive creative director for Nissan at TBWA/Chiat/Day, which handles creative for the account. As a result, it was being purchased by "a 49-year-old suburban woman smoking brown More cigarettes," instead of the "urbane, youthful target" the automaker covets.

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