Pathological liar Joe Isuzu has a pitch for Super Bowl viewers in this 1987 Isuzu spot by Della Femina, Travisano & Partners, which came up the character.

The appealing Joe Isuzu, played by David Leisure, wasn't a new creation for the Super Bowl; his initial run spanned 1986 through 1990. But the exposure on Super Bowl Sunday gave him a new level of social currency. A year and a half later, he would even figure in a zinger during a presidential debate between George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis, as Time magazine reported:

In the battle of testy one-liners, Dukakis was the initial and consistent aggressor from the moment he threw down the gauntlet by saying, "If Bush keeps it up, he's going to be the Joe Isuzu of American politics."

Ad Age named the "Lying Joe Isuzu" effort one of the best ad campaigns of the 20th century for putting Isuzu on the map and sticking in consumers' minds.

Isuzu didn't buy more Super Bowl time until 1995 ("Paris-Dakar"), by which point Joe Isuzu was in mothballs. Goodby, Silverstein & Partners revived the character in 2001.

BRAND: Isuzu

YEAR: 1987

AGENCY: Della Femina, Travisano & Partners

SUPERBOWL: XXI