For the last six months, scandal-tainted Mitsubishi Motors Corp. has been trapped: It has felt compelled to refrain from sales promotions despite its desperate need to boost plunging sales.

Now that the automaker has declared an end to its defect coverup woes, however, it is set to launch an aggressive marketing drive in September, MMC Chairman Yoichiro Okazaki said Friday.

"We plan to first launch image advertisements to appeal to the public that MMC has totally changed," Okazaki said in an interview. The firm will then advertise a new model that debuts this fall, he said.