June 1, 2010, 5:32 pm
Lexus Drives to the Jagged Edge
By STUART ELLIOTT

Drinking and driving do not mix. Is that why Lexus is shattering a Champagne glass in a new commercial?

No, not really. The spot, scheduled to begin running on Wednesday, is meant to demonstrate the “pursuit of perfection,” to quote the Lexus slogan, in a new way.

The commercial features a new Lexus model, the two-seat LFA, a so-called supercar. But the spot is intended to burnish the Lexus brand image as much as to sell the new car since only 500 of the two-seaters are to be produced.

The Champagne flute breaks in the commercial as a result of the sound of the IFA’s engine being revved up. A physicist was hired, Lexus says, to help determine the type of glass whose natural resonance frequency matched the frequency of the engine noise, which causes the glass to vibrate until it breaks.

Fans of the Lexus brand will recall a couple of previous times that glassware played leading parts in the brand’s pitches. A pyramid of Champagne glasses on a hood helped Toyota Motor introduce the Lexus luxury marque in 1989.

And in 2006, a commercial showed a LS 460 being parallel-parked with its park-assist feature, thereby keeping intact two giant pyramids of Champagne glasses.

Lexus is breaking out — pun intended — the glassware again to introduce a campaign that carries the theme “Engineering the impossible.”

The TV commercial is part of the campaign, along with print, online and outdoor ads; a commercial for movie theaters to be filmed in 3D; and a presence on the version of Sports Illustrated to appear on the new iPad.

“It’s still the pursuit of perfection,” Dave Nordstrom, vice president for marketing at Lexus, said in an interview by phone on Tuesday, adding the element of “showing the lengths Lexus goes to pursue perfection.”

The wink and nod to the previous commercials will be noticed by “the people who know Lexus,” Mr. Nordstrom said, but that knowledge of Lexus ad history is not needed to enjoy or understand the new spot.

Lexus is the luxury car leader in the American market and has been weathering the bumpy economy well, Mr. Nordstrom said.

The brand has also weathered a recent incident, he added, when Consumer Reports warned drivers to avoid the 2010 GX 460 sport utility vehicle after it failed the magazine’s emergency handling test.

Lexus recalled the S.U.V.’s and stopped selling them after the warning, subsequently updating the software that runs the electronic stability control system, The Associated Press reported; Consumer Reports then lifted the warning.

About 40 percent of the campaign will appear in digital media, Mr. Nordstrom said, which would be more than before for Lexus.

The online elements, scheduled to start on Wednesday, will include home-page takeovers on MSN and Yahoo, the creation of custom content on Web sites like foxsports.com and mlb.com; and the commercial running by means of a full episode player on sites like hulu.com.

The print ads will run, beginning in July, in magazines like Esquire, GQ and Wired. The outdoor ads will appear in 11 major markets, among them Dallas, Miami, New York and San Francisco; one went up on Tuesday and the rest are due on Wednesday.

The 3D commercial will appear starting on July 2 in theaters that will show the 3D movie “The Last Airbender,” Mr. Nordstrom said.