The nature of media in this bold modern age is such that we don’t really have things like commercials that manage to capture the attention of an entire country, but as improbable as this sounds, this was once A Thing. Some random-ass company would make some commercial for some product of theirs and then for months everyone you know would be asking you where the beef is. That was just how the world worked.
It’s not really that way now – sure, we have memes everyone seems to know, but society is a lot more compartmentalized and divided into niches than it was before. But back in the day, a company that could come up with a clever ad campaign could manage to seize the attention of a whole nation. And that includes Japanese car and truck makers with names that sounded funny to Americans.
I’m talking about Isuzu, of course, and their ’80s-era advertising phenomenon, Joe Isuzu. I suspect most of you are familiar with this campaign; if you’re not, here’s a little taste:
I think you get the bit they’re going for there. He’s a liar. An unrepentant, unashamed liar, and it’s honestly pretty funny stuff. It was a pretty bold move, back in the day, playing on tropes about dishonest car salesmen, so it was a bit risky, too.
These ads first hit the scene in 1986; Isuzu came to the US in 1981, and their first ad campaign revolved mostly around how the name was allegedly hard for Americans to pronounce:
Was it that hard to pronounce? Really? Or maybe there was just something wrong with plaid jacket dude? Regardless, even if this initial campaign didn’t last long, it did show that Isuzu was a company willing to have some fun in their ads and be a bit irreverent.
The ads were often genuinely funny! I like how in this one which, for some reason, was set in the UK, Joe Isuzu claims he sold an I-Mark to the queen for “seven pounds, nine ounces” and notes that the radio can drown out “the cries of the peasants.” It’s fun. They’re having some fun.
Of course, most of the reason why this works is because of the skill of the actor playing Joe Isuzu, David Leisure. Leisure had a real gift for a sort of confident, smarmy insincerity that really sold the character. You got the sense that it just didn’t matter to Joe Isuzu if what he was saying was true or not; the point was to say it, boldly and unashamedly.
Leisure had played a number of smaller comedic roles before getting cast as Joe Isuzu, including one of the Hare Krishna characters in the zany 1980 movie, Airplane!:
The ad agency that came up with the Joe Isuzu campaign, Della Femina, Travisano & Partners originally wanted Jon Lovitz to play the role, which seems to have been pretty heavily based – perhaps even stolen? – from Lovitz’ pathological liar character he performed on Saturday Night Live:
I think even if the initial inspiration came from Lovitz, Leisure made the role very much his own. Where Lovitz’s liar was a bit nervous, a bit insecure and desperate, Leisure played the role in an entirely opposite way. Joe Isuzu wasn’t lying furtively in hopes of getting away with something; Joe had the cool aplomb of an astronaut, and didn’t care if you believed him or not, because none of that actually mattered to Joe. Joe just lies for the joy of lying.
Some ads actually just had Joe antagonizing other car dealers, and not exactly lying, as such. But it still worked, again thanks to Mr.Leisure:
The company even found ways to incorporate Joe Isuzu into print advertising:
As far as how the ads themselves worked, initially, they were great: Isuzu sales went up by an impressive 18% after the ads started, but then leveled off, because of something no one really anticipated: the character created for the ads was a hit, but not so much the cars.
Everyone was paying attention to Joe Isuzu himself, and kind of ignoring the cars he was shilling. People remembered the funny lying man, but ask them to tell you anything about an i-Mark or Trooper and you’d be met with a blank stare.
This is all kind of a shame, because Isuzu was making some genuinely good cars and trucks at the time; I personally owned an Isuzu pickup and loved that thing:
I guess there’s a lesson here for advertisers, and I think it’s that advertising is not entertainment. Ads can be entertaining, sure, but they’re working for a particular goal. It’s like those water pitchers or ancient Egyptian cosmetic palettes you see in museums: they’re art, sure, but they also have a utilitarian job. As soon as their art value eclipses their original intended use, they can no longer be used to pour liquids or mix ochre and kohl.
That’s what Isuzu ended up doing: they made something so much fun to watch, it lost the ability to sell cars.
Happily, they solved all of this when they gave full control of the company to Joe Isuzu himself, and now every car sold is an Isuzu, using Isuzu’s new engine technology that produces raw happiness as exhaust and runs on human waste and insecurities.
At least, that’s what Mr. Isuzu told me.
Top graphic image: Isuzu
Joe Isuzu gets mentioned a shockingly large number of times in my house. every time we see David Leisure in something, “Hey, its Joe Isuzu!”. Maybe we watch “Airplane” too much…
It’s was funny when Joe Isuzu spouted nothing but lies whenever you saw him on the TV.
But it becomes nauseating when our elected officials and their representatives make a habit of it. I know they all lie, but it sure seems we hear a lot more of it recently.
I found Joe annoying, but I can’t deny his star power. Some commercials hit meme levels back then and you couldn’t escape them.
And now I want an Isuzu pickup with a Space Invader on the door.
Though about him just the other day when that Dodge’ubishi was on 🙂
–Great running campaign. One of the best ever!
Oh, those poor rear bump stops!
One of the best auto ad campaigns ever. I still tell younger generations about Joe Isuzu.
Also the Impulse was a genuinely unique and good looking coupe/hatchback.
Only the late, great Phil Hartman could out-smarm David Leisure.
I remember when Isuzu first came to the U.S. They started with giant billboards, simple black type on a white background: Isuzu?
My teenage self had no idea what this was, and the fact that I still remember it 45 years later shows how effective the ads were.
I think Lovitz could have pulled off a decent character. Maybe tone down the nervousness.
The Joe Isuzu smarm was great. The disclaimers, with their deadpan style, were even better.
One I recall was Joe bragged about the speed of the particular model (maybe the Impreza?) and the disclaimer was “Downhill, in a hurricane.” 🙂
You mentioned Jon Lovitz but all I see pictured above is Carlos Tavares.
Yeah, that’s the ticket!
Now we just elect overconfident liars. Confidence heuristic?
For the record, “Joe Isuzu” (David Leisure) is still in the realm of the living.
Whew! Thank you, I was waiting for that shoe to drop.
Glad to hear it!
Right? What a headline, Torch.
No mention of Isuzu bringing the character back in 2001? This was not long before Isuzu pulled out of the consumer market in the USA.
I remember at the same time as the Isuzu ads, that guy had an ensemble role on Empty Nest, which was a Golden Girls spinoff that improbably lasted something like 6 or 7 seasons. He played the same smarmy character on the show as he did in the ads and I suspect the show would’ve been cancelled a lot earlier if not for him.
Yep, I mostly remember David Leisure from Empty Nest too and recall he played the smarmy character well.
Isuzu.
Gesundheit.
Are those….. Space Invaders???
And you’d, what, drive them back and forth on streets, hoping no one would shoot at them?
The how to pronounce Isuzu commercials absolutely did NOT work in my Dad. He owned an Isuzu truck, but STILL called it his Izusu.
Drives.
Me.
NUTS.
I think this is a parent thing. My parents called Chik-Fil-A “Chik-A-Fil” always. Even after the “fil-a”/fillet thing was pointed out. Nope. Chick-A-Phil.
I seem to recall my dad once referencing Fuddruckers as “that burger place, you know frog fuckers or whatever it is”. He was also drunk roughly 85% of the time, mangling names of things was quite common.
Despite driving a Grand Cherokee, and had for years, he’d still routinely refer to it as a “Grand Comanche” also.
It probably is. The other thing that kills me is he insists on emphasizing the l in salmon.
Don’t forget the Impulse Turbo! Faster than a speeding, well, you know 😛