Nissan’s US arm has launched a new marketing campaign that blends music, “reality” TV, radio and seemingly outlaw behaviour in a bid to capture the attention of young American urban car buyers, the Los Angeles Times said.

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The paper said Nissan North America has hired former Quincy Jones-David Salzman Entertainment marketing strategist Jonathon Cropper, 32, to head the campaign and Cropper, Nissan’s senior manager for youth and urban communications, describes the new ad campaign as a non-traditional effort to sell to the under-30 market.

“When it comes to speaking to youth culture and multicultural youth in urban environments, traditional 30-second TV and radio ads just aren’t the way,” Cropper reportedly said.

According to the paper, the initial campaign centres on a heavily black and Hispanic market because those urban youths now account for 26% of Altima buyers.

The LA Times said Nissan’s campaign focuses on bringing the product to the people, with a 159-event, 10-city cross-country tour that will begin on July 30 in Chicago.

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The paper said the company has turned a highly customised Altima into a mobile broadcast and projection studio and a spokeswoman, identified as MC, will take the car to selected urban venues, play music and interview audience members in the back seat of the car, projecting segments of the interview live from within the car.

Cropper told the paper that MC also will play to her audience’s rebellious nature by “hacking” into conventional Altima radio advertisements being broadcast in the target cities on popular urban stations and the ads will be interrupted by a staticky “pirate” message from MC.

Cropper has also worked for MTV Networks and advised companies including BMW of North America Inc. and Nissan ad firm TWBA/Chiat/Day about trends in youth culture, the Los Angeles Times added.