A visually striking Nissan Middle East advertisement featuring a 3D highway billboard in Dubai has left viewers across social media stunned, with many initially mistaking it for a real-world spectacle.
The computer-generated campaign shows Nissan’s Patrol SUV appearing to burst out of a desert-themed billboard and onto the highway, with sand seemingly spilling onto the road. Designed to look as if it were filmed from a moving vehicle, the ad plays with forced perspective and photorealistic detail, blurring the line between reality and illusion.
Although the sequence is entirely CGI, its realism has helped the video go viral, prompting widespread discussion online about how convincingly it manipulates depth and motion.
Reacting to the ad on X, one user described the experience as deeply disorienting. “It legit feels like the truck broke free from the billboard and ripped into the desert,” the post read, adding that the campaign uses “CGI forced perspective, motion synced dust, and razor precise sightlines” to trick the viewer’s brain.
The user further remarked that “nothing is moving. But your brain swears it is,” calling the campaign an example of “perception engineering at speed.”
Nissan has not disclosed technical details behind the visual effects, but the ad has already drawn praise for pushing the boundaries of automotive advertising in the region, demonstrating how digital illusion and storytelling can capture attention in real-world environments.
