Lexus LS400 Commercial 1989: “Balance”
Listening to an engine go all out on the dyno is an experience that you generally have to be a gearhead to enjoy. But with this spot, Lexus balanced some old-school champagne glasses–perfect symbols of civility–atop a wailing LS400 mill and demonstrated that drivers could have brute force in a velvet case. For an automaker looking to establish itself against a country filled with people who thought the Land of the Rising Sun could never make a true luxury car, it was a bold statement.
