At a moment when electric vehicle advertising often leans hard into specs, speed, and sterile futurism, Lexus takes a sharply different approach. The brand’s latest chapter of The Standard of Amazing, titled Electricity at Its Finest, reframes electrification not as a technical breakthrough but as an emotional one, and that’s exactly why it earns this week’s Reel Ad of the Week.
Launching January 5, 2026, the campaign puts the Lexus RZ at the center of a quieter, more cinematic world, one that resists the frenetic pacing typical of automotive spots. Instead of motion for motion’s sake, Lexus slows everything down, creating space for beauty, restraint, and feeling. It’s a deliberate repositioning of electric luxury, and a confident one.
Developed in collaboration with longtime agency partners Team One and IW Group, the work is guided by a clear creative mandate: elegance, simplicity, and emotional resonance. The result is a suite of films that treat electricity not as a utility, but as a catalyst for refined experience.
Team One’s standout film, Miles and Miles, captures that philosophy perfectly. The spot unfolds in a single, unhurried moment as a man enjoys two beautifully electrified objects, a plugged-in Lexus RZ and a turntable playing Miles Davis’ Blue in Green. It’s audacious in its restraint, allowing mood, sound, and design to do the heavy lifting. Electricity here is not loud or aggressive. It’s calming, intimate, and deeply human. Watch below:
“The Lexus RZ is one of those beautifully crafted objects in a well-curated life that has a certain way of slowing down your heartbeat,” said Mark Koelfgen, executive director at Team One. “Our film set out to bring that human response to life on screen.”
That emotional thread continues in companion spots Magic and Worthy, which further explore the idea that luxury is felt, not explained. Together, the films push back against the perception that EVs are cold or soulless, a critique that has quietly followed the category since its early adopter phase.
Our friends at IW Group extend the platform with Session, a spot created for Asian American in-language audiences. Featuring original music composed by Brianna Tam and Shobhit Banwait, the film draws a parallel between driving an electrified Lexus and performing with electrified instruments, where technology amplifies emotion rather than replacing it. It’s a smart cultural lens that reinforces the campaign’s central idea: electricity can heighten creativity and connection.
“Electric vehicles are often perceived as cold and basic,” said Cenon Advincula, executive director at IW Group. “We wanted to counter that by showing the exhilaration and emotion of driving an electrified luxury vehicle.”
Rolling out across digital, social, out-of-home, experiential, and broadcast channels, Electricity at Its Finest positions the Lexus RZ as more than an EV. It’s a statement that luxury doesn’t disappear when engines go silent. It simply evolves.
In a category crowded with noise, Lexus chose stillness, and in doing so, delivered one of the most confident and emotionally grounded automotive campaigns of the year. That’s not just electricity done right. That’s the Standard of Amazing.
CREDITS:
BRAND: Lexus
- Sakiko Aono, Lexus Product Marketing Manager
- Sarah Krysanick-Huang, Lexus Advertising Manager
- Sara Lara, Lexus Senior Advertising Manager
- Jayme Lawson, Advertising Senior Analyst
- Christopher Pham, Senior Analyst, Lexus Product Marketing
- Lindsay Smelser, General Manager
- Cynthia Tenhouse, VP of Lexus Marketing
- Steve Waddell, Senior Manager Lexus Product Marketing
AGENCY: Team One
- Ben Allison, Management Director
- Janet Anderson, Associate Director of Business Affairs
- Jesse Blatz, Creative Director
- Leah Bohl, Associate Director Content Production
- Nick Costarides, Associate Creative Director
- Diana Crews, Program Manager
- Rachel DeLesk, Account Director
- Amy Gershwin, Executive Producer
- Chris Graves, Chief Creative Officer
- Darren Jeffries, Associate Creative Director
- Mark Koelfgen, Executive Creative Director
- Matt Lanzdorf, Creative Director
- Julie Michael, Chief Executive Officer
- Ryan Morgan, Junior Product Insights Specialist
- Chris Pouy, Creative Director
- Angel Smith, Account Executive
- Serda Ursan, Art Director
- Sam Walsh, Director Content Production
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Anonymous Content
- Director: Frederic Planchon
- Managing Director/EP: Eric Stern
- VP Commercials: Sue Ellen Clair
- Head of Production: Ena Nicole Abadjian
- Executive Producer: Omar Bustos
- Producer: Paul Ure
- DP: Matthias Koenigsweiser
- Canadian Production Company: Merchant
- Executive Producer: Ian Webb
- Executive Producer: Farrah Khaled
- Executive Producer: Hayley Taylor
- Head of Production: Colin Walker
- In House Producer: Marina Petrenko
- Producer: Vanessa Lenarduzzi
- Production Manager: Annie Marcoux
- Production Coordinator: Natasha Pleszkewycz
- Editorial: Whitehouse Post
- Senior Executive Producer: Joanna Manning
- Editor: Russell Icke
- Assistant Editor: Oliver Lin
- Producer: Katrina Kuss
VFX: Framestore
- Executive Producer – Pete King
- Creative Director – Alex Thomas
- Senior VFX Producer – Andrew McLintock
- Production Coordinator – Jackie Wingo, Ekta Joshi
- 2D Lead – Luca Pelegatta
- Nuke Compositors: Alex Osvaldsson, Vasco Cerqueira, Samuel Jorgensen, Peter Ulukpo, Minsang Lee, Evan Langley , Yachan Yuan
- Flame Compositing & Finishing – Toby Brockhurst
- Head of CG – Jessica Groom Shelton
- CG Supervisor – Clement Renaudin, Brian Creasey
- CG lead – Kevin Baker, Alexander Temirov
- CG lighter – Chingtien Chu
- Jr, CG artist – Subin Chae, Ben Fallon, Madison Snow
- Layout Supervisor – Sean Dollins, Rebecca Teichner
- VFX Editor : Dustin Indrebo, Jake Sadowsky
COLOR: Company 3
- Colorist: Tim Masick
- Original Music and Sound Design: Mophonics
- Executive Creative Producer/Partner: Jean Scofield
- Head of Production/Partner: Shelley Altman
- Sound Designer/Partner: Steph Altman
MAGIC TRACK: “Fournier”
- Magic Composer: Michael Leonhart
- Worthy Track: “Echoes”
- Worthy Composer: Ben Bromfield
AUDIO: Eleven
- Mixer: Bob Gremore
- Producer: Sean Kiely
- Owner: Jeff Payne
- Partners: Jordan Meltzer, AJ Murillo
VO: Blair Underwood
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