The Nakashes' timing was right. At this moment, consumer taste in jeans was shifting from established brands such as Levi's to designer jeans such as Gloria Vanderbilt and Calvin Klein. However, Jordache jeans were barely distinguishable from other designer jeans on the market. To differentiate their brand, the brothers invested one quarter of their annual sales volume ($300,000 of their own money and $250,000 in loans) into an aggressive 1979 ad campaign. Jordache produced a television commercial starring an apparently topless woman in tight Jordache jeans riding a horse through surf. The ad was rejected by all three major United States television networks, but independent New York stations aired it, and Jordache increased significantly in popularity. Later, an additional one million dollars was spent on advertising, including full-color advertisements in magazines circulated nationally in the United States. One promotional gimmick that did not work out was the Jordache blimp, a poorly designed airship that crashed on October 8, 1980 at Lakehurst, New Jersey on its maiden flight. It was "en route" to a promotional gala and crashed 43 years after the "Hindenburg" airship disaster in the same city.