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Bret Michaels Poisons Nissan's commercial trucking ops

Mötley Crüe isn't the only 1980s hair-metal band getting into the world of auto promotion. Poison frontman and reality show star Bret Michaels is following their lead and doing some advertising of his own. Where the Crüe have been all over the airwaves in recent years with a Super Bowl ad for Kia and music licensing with Dodge, Michaels has taken a very different route by becoming the pitchman for Nissan Commercial Vehicles.
The videos run the gamut to advertise predominantly the NV line of full-size vans, but the NV200 shows up a few times too. The star of this new campaign is Michaels' full-length music video (above) for the song Tough Love. It's basically a parody of all of those '80s rock ballads where the bands would slow the tempo down a little and reveal their softer side. Michaels rocks out at the Nissan proving grounds in Stanfield, AZ, while showing off the evaluation process and strutting around like a proper rock frontman. There are also a bunch of shorter videos (below) with the singer highlighting each part of the vans' torture testing. Although, the dialogue in these come off a bit more stilted. With these '80s metal bands getting into advertising, can it be long before Warrant is shilling for Fiat or Ratt for Mazda?

UAW calls on US State Department to help with Nissan plant

The United Auto Workers is calling for reinforcements in its ongoing battle with Nissan at the manufacturer's Canton, MS factory, where the Altima, Armada, Titan and NV (and eventually, the next Murano) are built. The union has been attempting to organize the employees at the factory for several years, but it's been largely unsuccessful.
Now, Reuters is reporting that the UAW is teaming with the IndustriALL Global Union and requesting intervention by the US State Department, with both groups accusing Nissan of using "threats, intimidation and fear" to keep the 5,600 workers at the facility from organizing. The two unions say this violates the guidelines of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international organization dedicated to stimulating economic growth.
The UAW and IndustriALL are asking the State Department's National Contact Point to serve as mediator with Nissan, to make sure things play out fairly. Speaking to Reuters, though, there's at least one Michigan-based labor adviser that's skeptical of the move.

Nissan Leaf sets another monthly sales record, Chevy Volt remains steady

Here we go again. Another month in the books and another month of record sales by the Nissan Leaf in the US. For October, the world's best-selling pure EV sold 2,589 units, which is 29.3 percent more than October 2013. That makes it 20 times in a row that Nissan can say that last month sales were better than the same month a year before. All told, Nissan has sold 24,411 Leafs in the US this year, a new record, reflecting an overall Leaf sales rate that is up 35 percent, year-to-date. Nissan isn't stopping, either. A new TV ad, one that, "encourages consumers to kick gas" by saving money on fuel will start airing today in major markets, according to Toby Perry, director of Nissan's EV marketing. You can watch it below. As for the Chevy Volt, things remained steady last month in the face of a new model that's coming in the second half of 2015. Chevy sold 1,439 Volts last month, which is about the same as September (1,394) but down 28.8 percent from the October 2013 despite GM having its best overall US October sales this year since 2007. So far, 2014 Volt year-to-date sales are down 14.9 percent through the end of October compared to 2013. And that wraps up the flash report on monthly sales for these two long-standing plug-in vehicles in the US market. As always, we'll have our in-depth write-up of US green car sales available soon. For now, we await your comments, below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.