Timing is everything. From someone saving their own life by sleeping in, to landing a dream job on happenstance, the bounty of great timing is astonishing. However, with the thrill of good timing comes the pain of bad timing, and bad timing can happen to anyone. Just ask the ad agency for Nissan that decided to market the upcoming Nissan Altima with a mysterious package right before a nationwide freakout over anthrax-laced packages.
The third-generation Nissan Altima was one spicy sedan. Featuring an available 3.5-liter VQ35DE V6 pumping out 240 rated horsepower, this midsizer was a straight-line rocket, boasting zero-to-60 performance above its weight class. Motorweek clocked one at 5.9 seconds to 60 mph, an incredible time for a car of that sort. What’s more, this new Altima was exactly the same size as the Maxima flagship, which signaled the start of a new midsize sedan arms race.
This arms race got off to a rocky start. See, 2001 wasn’t the greatest year in American history, with various terror attacks shaking the nation to its core. Unfortunately, Nissan engaged in a bit of badly-timed marketing for the Altima V6 based around the tagline, “The cure for the common car.”
Specifically, it sent out mysterious packages that begin to arrive shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. This wouldn’t have been a big deal except, around the same time, newsrooms and political figures began receiving letters laced with the highly toxic bacteria anthrax as part of a series of events known as Amerithrax. Five people were killed by the bacteria, and several copycat letters popped up across the country. Needless to say, the nation was on edge in the wake of these attacks.
So what did Nissan do? According to the Taipei Times, it sent a series of large, medicinal-looking tubes to existing Nissan customers. To make matters worse, none of the information on each of the package seemed to match up: The address was for Nissan Information headquarters in Missouri, the zip code traced back to Long Beach, Calif., and each mailed package looked like a prescription pill bottle.
Upon popping the Nissan mailer open, should recipients dare, medicine-themed advertising copy and imagery about how exciting the Altima V6 is was there to pop off the page, a bit of a blood pressure-raising moment for those who actually read the news. Mind you, a possible anthrax scare isn’t a great way to convince people to buy a car. Here’s how that Taipei Times article opens:
When Michael Friedman opened his mailbox on Oct. 9, he found a lumpy white package. It had a clear return address, Nissan Information Headquarters in Fenton, Missouri, but also, incongruously, the Rx symbol for a medical prescription. The postmark, from ZIP code 90746, was unfamiliar.
He was, understandably, nervous. “Just like everyone getting packages these days, we’re absolutely nuts about it,” he said. “Always in the back of my mind these days, you think there might be something in there.”
His wife, Wendy, was afraid to handle the parcel, so Friedman, an accountant who lives in Marlboro, New Jersey, opened it. Inside, he found a pill bottle, and the couple panicked.
They wanted to throw the package away. But, Friedman said, curiosity got the best of him. A letter was also enclosed. The first sentence read, “There’s a disease out there.”
In the end, Nissan ended up apologizing to 200,000 households for the insensitivity of this marketing campaign, which is a big number. As for the other 52,000 households yet to have Altima mail (Altimail?) sent their way, Nissan representative Kurt von Zumwalt told the Taipei Times, “We’ll probably send them a more traditional brochure.” Yeah, no kidding.
Indeed, Autopian reader Chris sent in high-res scans of the mailer and apology letter, and from the sound of Nissan’s official statement to owners, it seems like the brand was just a victim of bad timing.
Unfortunately, this package was en route when the first cases regarding the content of mail occurred. As soon as Nissan became aware of these events, we immediately stopped mailing any additional packages. Nissan is now evaluating the design of all mailed communications and will continue to indicate clearly the contents of every package and to identify Nissan North America as the sender.
Mind you, it’s not like the shipment of vaguely suspicious mailers with contents resembling medical paraphernalia did a whole lot to hurt the Altima’s success in America. These cars still sold by the truckload, cementing Nissan’s rebirth after the brand was hanging by a thread in the late-’90s. Of equal importance, the third-generation Altima helped force almost every other automaker in the midsize sedan space to up their game. Some were more successful than others, but this car was arguably the catalyst for its succeeding generation of competitors.
Unsurprisingly, though, no automaker seems to have copied this marketing strategy.
Hat-tip to Chris!
(Photo credits: Nissan, Chris)
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Wait, Nissan dumped on Pintos and Gremlins, too? NISSAN? With this steaming turd of a car?! Right as they were starting to dumb down and blandify the hell out of their own lineup? Sit the hell down, Nissan.
I would rather have a Pinto that’s ON FIRE than another Altima.
This is far from a one off. Back in the 70s a weight loss chocolate candy was introduced called Aides. At the same time a sexual disease was discovered called Aids.
Ayds – came out in the 1930s, sales really exploded in the ’70s, but then totally collapsed in the ’80s due to connection with the AIDS epidemic and it was eventually taken off the market sometime in the late ’80s/early ’90s.
Crazy thing is, the product actually worked – chocolate candy with an appetite suppressant mixed in, a lot of people actually did lose weight with it.
In that same time period, there was a property and casualty insurance carrier named AID Insurance… they re-branded as Allied Group, then subsequently got acquired by Nationwide.
It could have been a lot worse if they had gone with their original wording:
WE HAVE THIS ALTIMA. YOU BUY NOW. ARE YOU INTERESTED? DEATH TO ACCORD. DEATH TO CAMRY. NISSAN IS GREAT
As the former driver of a 2002 Altima, IDK—the anthrax might’ve been preferable.
So back in the day, a woman at work got one when they were fairly new. To be fair, only she drove this car. Not sure what her husband drove to his job (might’ve been a Chevrolet Beretta). But this woman said to everyone on the sales floor, and I quote, “My husband was super excited for the Altima. He told me this was his dream car.”
I mean, I guess some people set realistic and attainable goals for themselves.
To be fair, this woman had also once previously said to me, regarding the boss’s son’s C5 Corvette he had at the time, “I mean, my car has a sports suspension. So basically the same as Ben’s Corvette.” This was before she bought the 2002 third-generation Altima. This was in regards to the FIRST GENERATION ALTIMA she had at the time. Yes, totally the same as a C5!
…bless her heart. Hopefully the first-gen was more reliable, but uhhhhh, bless her heart.
Nissan Altima with a timing issue?
It’s probably just the chain tensioner.
Oh wait… Nevermind.
I find it funny how Nissan originally said that the new-for-the-time Altima stood out from all the “underpowered, understyled, and generally underwhelming cars”, yet now the sight of an Altima is about as joy-inducing as getting executed via lethal injection.
Is this what they call “viral marketing”?
nah bro, this is bacterial. antibiotics might work on it.
These are peak Altima. They were the perfect size, and performed well against other midsized sedans of the time. An uncle of mine had a V6 as a company car that he still says is the best car he’s ever had. To be fair, it was replacing an Oldsmobile Aurora (!) which while quirky as hell and a spaceship of a car for a regular dude in the 90’s, ended up being a gigantic unreliable piece of crap.
I got to drive that Altima around a bit as a teenager and can vouch that it beat the living crap out of the Camry my dad had at the time, lol.
The next generation began their foray into CVT all the things, and therefore began the downfall of Nissan. By the time the 2013 redesign came about, the Altima had completed it’s transformation from possibly the best car in it’s segment, to the very worst.
The 07-12 generation did have some sporting pretense still, but that era was also a bit of a ‘techy’ push for Nissan (and how they pushed the CVT, as a technological advancement). You could get Bluetooth and keyless access on most of the lineup down to the Versa in the late 2000s, when some cars were still years out for offering those even on top models.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say the 2013 was the worst in segment though. While Versa and Sentra were steps backwards compared to their predecessors, the Altima still had a lot going for it, it was just dull. It wasn’t as slick as say the Optima or Fusion or as well-rounded as the also-new Accord, but 38 mpg highway/31 combined was very good for a nonhybrid midsize at the time, it was still roomier/more comfortable than some, and while the interior was chintzy the Camry of the time was worse. And the Camry cost a lot more to get some simple features like a rearview camera.
But shortly after, Toyota and Honda were putting a lot of effort into updating their offerings after slipping for a few years while Nissan languished.
Oh, they had transmissions-o-crap starting in ’02. Mine was routinely confused by normal driving and for a while, I had to floor it to trick it into moving out of its own way.
Hated that pile. The 2.5L ate head gaskets like candy and the car faked us out by shutting off the A/C to try and stop the overheating. In summer. In Texas. That flaming turdpile left me stranded more often than not. I hope it’s become something useful now, like a toaster.
Oof. Noted. I knew a few people with the 2.5L but wasn’t aware it was a turd. I will say, these did sort of disappear in their entirety about 5 years ago…
You got lucky by having the VQ V6 model. The 2.5s like poor Stef had were unadulterated pieces of crap, I’ve never heard of a single person who owned one that didn’t absolutely grenade itself at some point. It really showcased the cost cutting Ghosn was willing to do to get Nissan back in the black after their cost-no-object engineering philosophy of the ’90s.
I cannot imagine being the marketing manager for that campaign. That dude has the absolute winning story for the “so tell us a time a project went badly” interview question.
DeLorean tried to do the same thing one time, but the contents of the package actually had powder.
Low Blow
It certainly wasn’t out of line.
Doesn’t pass the sniff test.