Joe Isuzu
Joe Isuzu was a fictional spokesman who starred in a series of 1980s television advertisements for Isuzu cars and trucks. Created by the ad agency Della Femina, Travisano, and Partners, and directed by Hollywood director Graham Baker, the segments aired on American television in 1986–90, reaching their zenith in 1987 after the character was featured during Super Bowl XXI. Played by actor David Leisure, Joe Isuzu was a pathological liar who made outrageous and overinflated claims about Isuzu's cars, with one commercial even casting him as the Boy Who Cried Wolf. Joe Isuzu's satire of the advertising and automotive sales business met with some resistance within those industries among those who felt the character reflected poorly on them. Joe Isuzu was a major success, causing a significant jump in Isuzu sales the year he was introduced and maintaining those sales in the following years. In an effort to further boost sales and assuage concerns that Joe Isuzu was becoming more famous than the Isuzu vehicles he was trying to sell, Isuzu tweaked the ad campaign to make Joe more honest about Isuzu's benefits, compensating with more assertive sales tactics, such as ambushing salesmen trying to sell other brands by mentioning