encore888

Someone has finally posted the iconic, award-winning 1989 television advertisement which introduced Lexus to the world!

"Balance" - Introducing the Lexus LS 400

The 0:30 ad was archived by the AMCI, an independent firm which verifies that claims made in ads are truthful and accurate--as Lexus' claims about its then-New LS were.

Threads on this forum have come and gone with mentions of this ad, and the LS 460 launch has referenced the famous champagne glasses pyramid.

Here it is, simple and elegant. Note that the beginning of the ad is obscured by the AMCI title frame, and the last few seconds of the ad don't show. But the head-on shot is the same, IIRC, with the Lexus emblem and name appearing as a graphic over the image.

Lexus LS 400 - Balance is here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=P6bmRay7M_o

Incidentally, the LS 460 has appeared in a Lexus US Open ad -- a brief head-on shot. There is also another 1989 LS 400 ad - featuring TRAC (http://youtube.com/watch?v=DNGWWarEUBE, among other Lexus ads on YouTube.

I'm looking forward to the ad campaign for the New LS Series. Lexus has come a long way since 1989, but what a spectacular debut that was!

MSMLexIS

Sweet thanks so much for finding that.

mavericck

Cool commercial.

MSMLexIS

They also have the ES comercial with the ball baering and theres also an es300 commercial from 1997.

newr

I think that was purely marketing... I am pretty sure many other cars can do that.

encore888

It's true that other cars subsequently were shown to be capable of similar feats; at least one car company copied the Lexus commercial.

But it's still a stunning debut ad. And won an Ellie award for advertising.

-J-P-L-

Holy Crap! YouTube has a whole bunch of Lexus commercials!

Just type in "Lexus Commercial" in the search function on YouTube.

newr

may I ask which company? i am curious.

-J-P-L-

Nissan did it with the first Altima.

aliti19

Best commercial ever! I wanna try it with my dad's '92 LS w/ 215K+ miles on it. I'm sure i'd pull it off. It's still so damn smooth.

MSMLexIS

Dodge also copied this for there 94 ram ad but the champange glasses were on a dodge intrepid that was mounted on the back of the ram.

MSMLexIS

Has anyone else noticed that the commercials stop before there done. And the sound is out of sync you here the LS400 start and rev up before you see the key in the ignition. Nice music though.

flipside909

Team One Advertising (sub of Saatchi & Saatchi) did a great job with this commercial back in 1989. Not many cars (if any) at that time had a powertrain that smooth. Remember, they ran the car to 100+ mph and the car shifted into all gears without a glitch. Of course a few years later after the fact, Nissan and Dodge jump on it....granted it took them that many years to R&D a powertrain that smooth.

flipside909

BTW, there's a TYPO in that short excerpt. It's AMCI not ACMI.

encore888

Thx for catching that, it is now corrected.

And just to explain, the reason why AMCI tested the ad was in response to challenges that it be proven real and not deceptive advertising.