A stolen RC car, a Barbie cameo, and a Van Halen soundtrack walked into a Nissan ad. ㅤ It won commercial of the year. ㅤ Check this out: ㅤ In 1996, Nissan dropped a stop-motion spot for the 300ZX. ㅤ The concept: an action figure steals an RC 300ZX and drives across the house to visit Barbie. ㅤ They set it to Van Halen's "You Really Got Me." ㅤ It sounds like a silly concept right? ㅤ Well, it won Commercial of the Year nods from Time, Rolling Stone, USA Today, and Car and Driver. ㅤ The only silly part about it was that Mattel sued Nissan over the Barbie and Ken likenesses, which ended up being free press that kept the ad buzzing for months. ㅤ Nissan topped recall charts for 90s auto ads. ㅤ Notice how the real product isn't even featured? ㅤ Nissan let pop culture and nostalgia do the heavy lifting. ㅤ Here's what that teaches us: ㅤ When your audience connects with your product through something they already love, the spec sheet becomes irrelevant.