Selling crap to people born in the ‘80s and ‘90s is tough, partly because they’re too savvy to fall for old marketing tricks and partly because the older generations totally tanked the economy for a few years with their stupid wars and tax cuts. However, Ford has actually come up with a clever way to reach these young-ish people, and—at the risk of shocking any old folks out there so bad that they die of a heart attack—it involves pandering to their love for nostalgia. Essentially, Ford has ditched traditional spokespeople and replaced them with familiar faces from cartoons and video games for a series of YouTube videos called “Overdubs.”
The most recent one involves Sailor Moon pining for her one, true love: The 2017 Ford Fusion.
Earlier this year, Ford returned to Shadow Moses Island for a pair of Metal Gear Solid videos, and the company even got voice actor David Hayter to reprise his role as Solid Snake—something Metal Gear Solid V couldn’t be bothered to do.
In 2015, Krillin and Gohan from Dragon Ball Z used the mystical Dragon Balls to wish for the one thing that can save the universe from the tyranny of Frieza. (It was the 2016 Ford Focus, obviously.)
We don’t know if these videos would ever actually convince someone to buy a car, but at least it’s fun to talk about Sailor Moon, Metal Gear, and Dragon Ball Z every once in a while. Tuxedo Mask! Kamehameha! Love blooming on a battlefield!