Lexus Takes a Break to Advertise to African Americans

By Matt Van Hoven on Jan 19, 2010 03:35 PM

Lexus and Ryan Leslie (pictured) formed a 'strategic alliance' that launched during the BET Honors award ceremony in D.C. over the weekend, where Leslie performed. The automaker is taking a break from the strenuous work of traditional white-folk advertising to market to African Americans, through social media. Twitter and Facebook will serve as the driving force behind the conversation, says a release.

The campaign marks a departure from the traditional for Lexus, as you can see from the release they sent: "This African American marketing program with Ryan Leslie represents a break from the traditional for Lexus, as the innovative use of social/digital media tools such as Twitter and Facebook will serve as the driving force behind the conversation."

Though what they probably meant to say was that the social media aspect of this "marks a departure from the traditional for Lexus" it's very easy to read that as "we don't usually advertise to black people".

Update: Lexus has worked with a lot of artists, like Alicia Keys and Keri Hilsonand Holly Robinson Peete.

(Lexus aint no fools, they know the black man and his car are the proverbial engine of cool, Matt)

Car-jacked from AgencySpy they thought I was the valet & gave me the keys.

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Black Herbal Toothpaste: I can't describe this

I like it!

I sometimes feel this way. As a black man working in advertising and all. Climbing seemingly insurmountable shafts, just to achieve meaningless objectives. Then to have the little joy there may be in it snatched away and then made to feel like sh*t for even trying. Then, oh boy, then at the end of the day I feel all mushy and slightly abrasive. Perfect for whisking away the plaquey mush.

I find this commercial very insightful. Black herbal toothpaste gets me.



Or have I grown rant weary? No fret, the web is loaded with angry black keyboardist. It's like a modern day Black bullpen out there. Sic'em guys!!!

The Assimilated Negro counts it off:

1. little white (copy updates w/ probably Asian) girl needs big black dude to monkey-climb the post for her balloon. honestly, I wouldn't flinch myself, but the black people-monkey allusions are still dangerously touchy territory in 2009 for anyone to be toying with in an ad campaign.

2. Making sure if you thought the gorilla climbing the tree was inadvertent racism, we have the crazy mother scooping her child up because a black guy in a tanktop and shorts just climbed 500 feet to retrieve her daughter's balloon ...???

3. Then with 20 seconds remaining in the clip, our poor balloon-fetcher returns to what appears to be his one-bedroom apartment in a suburbanish housing complex, where we find out he retrieves balloons and scares moms regularly, sleeps on a giant toothbrush, and turns into -- i'm guessing here -- herbal toothpaste. Ahh yes, makes me want to get those cavities out right now!

So i have no idea why, and i'm all a fan of going outside the box or whathaveyou, but this racist Donnie Darko-meets-Colgate approach to advertising just seems a little off the mark for me. But maybe this is what you need to do these days to get the kids to brush their teeth.

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