How many of you out there remember the advertising/publicity blitz that hit in 1989? A friend of mine the other day mentioned that when he saw a Lexus pass by, it took him back to the debut of the car in 1989 and how "no one ever had marketed a new car so well."

Do you guys remember that?

My recollection was opening up Newsweek and noticing that for the first time there was a massive advertising insert in the middle. I folded it out and it was like a poster, advertising a brand new luxury car...I'd never heard of 'LEXUS' but the name sounded right, very classy and distinctive...and the pictures, with the darkened beautiful backgrounds, never done as well before or since. I seem to remember a large poster, with the LS on one side and the ES on the other...

Is this it?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...spagename=WD1V

BTW, does anyone know what font they used in those early ads?

 

I remember that ad. I even have the 1990 LS & ES brochures somewhere.

Team One advertising has come a long way.

 

I remember it well. Lexus debuted just about the same time that Infiniti and Saturn did. To be honest, though, Saturn, at least at the time, was far and away the best marketed of the three. Its initial success was extraordinary, but today is in a free-fall thanks to gross mismanagement and many bad decisions......I have written about that at length in other threads
Lexus marketing was substantially better than Infiniti's and has remained so to this day, though Infiniti is finally beginning to catch up.

All three companies, by the way, have dominated Dealer-Satisfaction ratings since their introduction. Saturn's, especially, was unbelieveably high for a low-priced car.

 

Well, that WAS one of the explicit objectives of GM's multi-$B venture. Another was to build a solid, reliable vehicle for a reasonable price, which they also achieved for the first few years until GM corporate reined them in and made them more like the rest of the company.

What kind of marketing did Acura have at the beginning? I remember "precision crafted performance" and "the performance and luxury division of the American Honda Motor Company", but not whether I got those from print ads, television, or what.

 

Acura was the first Japanese luxury brand to enter America. I believe they started in 1987. I was too young to really notice any marketing but I remember my dad pointing out an Acura Legend after he bought his new accord in 87 and said it was from Honda but had a v-6 and was an almost exact copy of a Sterling sedan which was a luxury car company in Germany. Many people doubted Honda would be successful with a premium brand since Honda was a very small company back then and did not have any v-8s or large platforms. I don't think they even had any v-6s. The Legend was highly regarded and the Integra recieved good reviews. I saw a silver NSX in 91 and thought it was the best looking car I had ever seen. It is still one of the best looking cars to me.

I remember Lexus having commercials with a bunch of wine glasses on the hood of a LS400 while the car was running and they were not shaking. I remember people being very impressed by the smoothness of the LS400, how reliable it was, and it could be had for so much less then its European competition especially Mercedes.

Infiniti had the strangest marketing with commercials that never showed the car but showed leaves or rocks in streams. I remember Johnny Carson and Letterman making fun of their add campain and Saturday Night Live had a skit where there was an Infiniti toilet with a commercial of a guy shooting rubber darts at a toilet. I sat in a Q45 at an auto show in St.Louis and thought it was a very nice car. It looked and seemed expensive and prestigous to me and it was one of my favorite sedans in the early 90's. The original Q45 got very good reviews and most journalist preferred it over the LS400 with its 278hp v-8, sporty handling, and styling. The public however preferred the LS400 which sold way more then the Q45. Many people blame that ad campaign for Infinitis initial failure with the Q45. The J30 was another car that I liked but it got mixed reviews for its odd styling.

Mazda was supposed to bring a premium brand to the U.S. most likely being called Amati. It would have sold the 929, Millenia, RX-7, and the 3 rotor Cosmo luxury coupe, and possibly a supercar but they chose not to for money reasons I believe.

 

Before the LS, I got a 2-page foldout poster of the Legend's interior...very nice beige.

As for the LS, I remember the 1989 C&D comparo where the LS took #1 as a great bit of PR...back in the days when I had lots of respect for the mag. Not to mention following up with 10 Best.

 

I sorta remember that SNL skit. All I recall is some guy shot darts at a toilet and said, "Poo poo, kaka, doo doo," etc. Then the darts would fall off the toilet. What was the point of that skit? What were they making fun of exactly?

 

I picture this commercial when I think of the debut of Lexus.

 

I actually don't remember early Lexus in 1990. Oddly as a kid, I do remeber the dam "rocks and trees" and thinking to myslf "WTF". I actaully remember that ad.

The first Lexus ad I remember is the ES 300 with the ***** rolling in the panel gaps while the car rotated. And the champange flutes on the LS 400 while the engine was running. I have NEVER saw anything like that before.

I do remember Saturn (I was young, they were cheap and they did appeal to me)" A different kind of company, a different kind of car". The SC2 was a great looking car back then.

Next thing I know Lexus started to get big with the "Hip Hop" crowd when the SC 300/400 and GS 300 came out. Then rap music started naming Lexus left and right. You couldn't watch a video without a Lexus being in it. And that is FREE advertising.

 

You don't remember the ES250? it was a rebadged second-generation Camry.
http://www.pbase.com/macky_makayan/es250

 

I don't remember any ads for it at all. I have no recollection of it.

 

Acura did open the way with the original Legend in 1987. I was driving Preludes at the time and remember my Honda dealer laughing at the idea of someone paying $19,999 for a Japanese "luxury" car. A year later those early buyers were reselling their Legends for thousands more than they paid.

Lexus and Infiniti appeared about the same time in 1989. Initially, Lexus had only the LS400 and, within the year, had introduced the badge-engineered Camry/ES250 so as to offer something in the showroom other than the $39K LS400 since the Leuxs-platformed ES300 was still a year away (but I agree with Sick, don't remember any ads for the 250). The ball bearings and the champagne flutes were incredible commercials! And Infiniti showed us rocks, waves, and bonsai.

But that first gen Q sounded like a NASCAR stocker and ran like one, too!!!!

The commercials for the first gen SC were well done also with bits of the car being seen while cruising on a dark, rainy night. I especially remember twin clouds of condensation from what looked like trumpet-sized dual exhausts with that deep V8 whuffle in the background...............marvelous stuff!!

 

I remember that SC ad as well.

I don't recall any Acura ads in the 80s, 90s and vaguely remember one from the last couple years. But clearly, they were the 1st upscale brand from a Japanese car maker and in reading Lexus books, they learned from Acura. Lexus and Infiniti took it a lot more serious, clearly Lexus got it right.

 

Until you mentioned it, I had not thought about it, but you're quite right. Either Acura ads were incredibly forgettable or the brand just hasn't advertised (other than in print) to any degree until the last few years. Which is REALLY odd when you consider that Honda has had some absolutely UNforgettable ads over the years (Accord on the wall in an art gallery, for one).

I almost wish that Lexus still emphasized their engineering as did the early ads. Talk about a shot across the bows of Mercedes, the brand that defined German engineering. Who EVER saw something to compare with the demonstration of engine balance and transmission harmony that watching the LS400 with 10 champagne flutes on the hood start from idle and rev to redline in every gear until it was maxxed out on the dyno. Sure, it could have been faked. But it wasn't. (I balanced a nickel on the 4.0L V8 of an LS, started the car, and ran it to redline and back without knocking the nickel over, all this done in the dealer showroom in front of other customers WITH THE BLESSING OF the sales department.) And it certainly conveyed the sort of seamless driving experience Lexus provided.

Sure, there have been some degradations of the original Lexus dealer experience (how many of you have bought Lex long enough to remember when you also got a full tank of gas when you had your car serviced?? Mine stopped coincident with the introduction of the first gen RX........and what goes on in the service dept many places has been well documented BUT service still works on a problem until it's fixed and YOU say it's fixed.) but it's still the standard by which others are measured.

I'm a couple of years (maybe more.....that's another story entirely) from my next car decision but as tasty as the M45 appears to be and as tempting as the C6 Vette is and as seductive as the new iteration of the Boxster S is, I don't believe I see anything pulling me away from Lexus.

 

Wow, that was audacious of you to get the dealer to let you demonstrate that, and amazing how it worked perfectly!