Nissan's new ad campaign has the standard cute couples and Hollywood voice (Robert Downey Jr., slumming). It also takes a hard swipe at Toyota's sudden acceleration problems with the world's first commercial touting brake override.
Before Toyota broke out in sudden acceleration recall hives, no one who wasn't a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers knew or cared to know what a brake override system is. It's true that the U.S. government may soon mandate it, but the only way this ad makes logical sense is if the car stops while the driver is pushing the brake and gas pedals at the same time.
Nevermind that several automakers have brake override standard, including Chrysler. Without the controversy over Toyotas, Nissan wouldn't have the chance to make an everyday engineering choice glow with the stroke of genius.
Like Mad Men's Don Draper says in his pitch for selling Lucky Strikes cigarettes: "Everybody else's tobacco is poisonous. Lucky Strikes' is toasted."