You do not have to understand a word of Portuguese to get most of a commercial that was pretty famous in Brazil around 2011. Nissan was trying to get a larger share of the pickup truck market in that country – dominated by the Toyota Hilux – and the Frontier had a clear superiority with its turbodiesel engine: it had 172 ps (170 hp). That was when Murilo Moreno and his team at Nissan came up with the Cursed Ponys (Pôneis Malditos in Portuguese).
These colorful little guys will remind you a lot of the My Little Pony cartoon and toys, and the association is totally on purpose. Would you like to have a car with mighty horses or a delicate toy car? That was how the whole story started.
The video begins with the driver of an unidentified pickup truck stuck in the mud. The narrator asks: “Do you want a pickup truck with horses or ponies?” In Brazil, people often refer only to horses instead of about horsepower units in their cars. A more adequate translation would be: “Do you want a pickup truck with horsepower or ponypower?”
After trying to move the vehicle and making everything worse, the driver steps out of the truck and starts screaming: “Cursed ponies!” That’s when he starts to listen to a childish song, and the hood pops open with a weird light coming from underneath it. That’s when the magic kingdom of helplessness unfolds.
Three ponies are galloping in a carousel, moving contrary to them, which makes them stay almost in the same place. Believe me: that was also on purpose. In a land of candy trees, the ponies sing: “Cursed pony, cursed pony, come get stranded with us! I hate mud; I hate dirt… How gross! I will not move anymore!” The cherry on top of the cake is one of the ponies flying and approaching the driver to say, in Spanish: “Te quiero!” (I love you!).
That’s when Nissan presents the Frontier and brags about its power, which has nothing to do with getting any truck out of difficult obstacles. Ask any off-road specialist, and they will tell you they prefer a vehicle with loads of torque in trails than one able to reach higher speeds – which is what power delivers. However, Nissan knows most customers mix both concepts, and it chose to make a funny advertisement instead of being technically correct.
Like the Mr. Potato Head commercial we presented, this version of “Cursed Ponies” was focused on the internet public. When the advertisement for the television ends, it shows a pony threatening the viewers with a curse: if they do not share the ad with ten people, they will have the song forever in their heads. Apart from our translation, we also found a video with English subtitles for those who want to follow everything. Have fun!
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