AUTOS: Phantom Car, Faint Sales

Nissan's ad campaign for its new Infiniti luxury cars is renowned for a novel gimmick: the autos are nowhere in sight. Now, as it turns out, neither are buyers. The Infiniti ads, applauded for their Zen approach, depict lushly photographed trees, boulders, lightning bolts and breaking waves. At first that created suspense about the $23,500 coupe and $38,000 sedan. Curious car shoppers descended on Infiniti dealerships just to catch a glimpse of the mystery mobiles. A Gallup poll in November found that the ad was the best- recalled commercial on U.S. television.

But piquing interest is not always the same as sparking sales. During the last two months of 1989, Infiniti dealers in the U.S. sold only 32 cars a day, far short of the 134 sales a day of its archrival, Toyota's new Lexus (base price: $35,000). "On the other hand," quipped comic Jay Leno, "sales of trees and rocks are up over 300%." Now Infiniti's ad agency has released new ads originally scheduled to appear later in the first quarter. Prominently featured: cars.