Outlets sing for the Nissan Leaf's first birthday

First, singing hamsters. Now, singing outlets. You can't make this stuff up, except that the crew at Nissan's ad agency -- TBWA.Chiat.Day, Los Angeles -- did.

On Sunday, the all-electric Nissan Leaf was one year old in terms of its on-sale date in the United States. The spot debuted on Sunday and aired during NBC's Sunday Night Football game between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys.

When the Leaf was released, Nissan gave a target of 10,000 sales for 2011. As of November, more than 8,700 Leafs had been sold in the states, according to the Automotive News data center.

Many of those were early-adopter purchasers, but Nissan, which is the No. 3 Japanese auto brand in the U.S. behind Toyota and Honda, is looking to drive the Leaf toward a broader market. To that end, the company announced that the Leaf, already on sale in 23 states, would become available for order in an additional seven states starting this month, and will be sold in all states beginning in March.

"The challenge is how we communicate to a mass market," said Bill Peffer, marketing communications director for Nissan North America. One method, he said, is placing hashtags in the spot, to give the car a presence on Twitter and on mobile platforms.