Hi Alfadog,

That question's right up my street. At the risk of getting way off subject on the original thread - here's the answer:

When the C110 Skyline debuted in Japan, Nissan launched a massive ad campaign in print, film ( at cinemas ) and - most memorably for the general public - television commercials.

The television commercials were really lavish affairs for the time, and really broke the mould for the early days of Japanese colour TV. Even in the early 1970's the Japanese standard of living was not all that high, but people were just starting to get hold of some disposable income and easier credit. These people were the target of the Skyline commercials.

The commercials featured a young boy / girl couple ( "Ken" and "Mary" ) who were not quite 100% Japanese-looking, but certainly looked like models. The commercials followed their exploits on romantic drives to photogenic locations in Japan through the seasons, and the whole thing was accompanied by a specially-commissioned theme song called "Ai no Skyline" ( roughly translating as "Skyline of love" ) which actually topped the charts in many versions. Ken and Mary became pretty popular characters with the general public, and Skyline sales really took off - despite the Oil Crisis.

The print ad campaign spawned its own icons, as the umbrella mark and heart logo of the Ken and Mary ads became easily-recognisable icons. The Works Skyline race cars of the period even sported the logos.

I've got the whole Ken & Mary TV ad campaign on video. Its about a half hour long in total. What a sad bugger I am.

Alan T.

that's fantastic!

that's the sort of nostalgic tid bits I really enjoy - there are so many little fun things like that (although from the sounds of it anyone who is anyone knows about that particular ad campaign) which make history that extra bit more enjoyable.

:classic:

Hi All,

here are some "Ken & Mary" stickers (they look like it to me, but may be badges???)