Nissan Returning to Super Bowl Advertising Showing Titan and Murano

For almost 20 years Nissan has been absent from advertising during the Super Bowl.  It has now announced plans to return with one produced by advertising powerhouse TBWA/Chiat/Day for the '15 edition of the Super Bowl in early February next year.

Why now?  Well, because Nissan has its three flagship vehicles with redesigns/introductions coming to production in the '15 model year.  For crossovers you have the new Murano which has seen a very recent introduction as a '15 model, for sedans you have the '16 Maxima which is to be introduced in the first half of '15 and of course and perhaps the focus of this ad you have the production of the '16 Nissan Titan diesel for trucks at the January NY Auto Show.  Though none of these will be Nissan's sales leaders (the Rogue, the Altima and the Frontier will likely still lead their category sales in '15) these are the top offerings in each segment and represent the models Nissan hopes its customers aspire to when buying the less expensive models.

Nissan Returns to Super Bowl Advertising...

2015 Nissan Murano Spy Shots

The Nissan Murano is in its 2nd Generation with its current iteration coming in '09 and the original being produced back in '02 as an '03 model.  The Murano itself has been extremely successful as it was introduced at the perfect time to bridge the period between body on frame gas guzzling SUVs of the 90's and the trend toward soft-roaders and CUVs we've seen in the '00s and beyond.

While the 2nd generation carried over a great deal of the style and lines of the initial Murano, the third generation is projected to be a sharp departure in a number of areas.  These are the first spyshots of what will be the '16 Murano.  The rectangular dual exhaust reminds me a bit of the Porsche Cayenne as does the rear spoiler.  Not a ton can be gleaned from these shots given the heavy camouflage but the windshield looks substantially more raked that previous versions and the overall profile appears much more like current Infiniti CUV offerings than prior Muranos.  The bulbous rearend also lends to this impression.  More to come soon on this in the near future--but could we get a diesel engine here as well??  The Euros already get a 2.5L diesel equipped Murano so given the recent proliferation of diesel vehicles in the US, might we see that as an option?