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The Challenge

Use it or lose it. With a small surplus fiscal year-end budget and an immovable March 31 deadline, we needed to act fast or lose the funds altogether…and there was no room for a media buy. Could we somehow reinforce Lexus’ vehicle personalization story in a way that felt premium, culturally relevant, and unmistakably Lexus?

 

The Insight
Earn the media! Leverage the timing. April Fools’ Day had evolved into a legitimate cultural moment while at-home DNA testing was rapidly entering the mainstream. Together, they presented an opportunity to blur the line between entertainment, innovation, and belief—creating a story that felt outrageous, yet just plausible enough to spark conversation.

 

The Solution

A perfect PR storm. In tight collaboration with the creative team, we identified and led a newsworthy brand idea that played like a Lexus product announcement. Partnering with 23andMe, Lexus introduced Genetic Select—a tongue-in-cheek yet almost believable vehicle personalization feature claiming to customize a Lexus based on a driver’s DNA.

Positioned as the ultimate expression of personalization, the campaign was unveiled with the same gravitas, visual language, and storytelling cues as a true Lexus product reveal—inviting audiences to question, engage, and share before realizing they’d been brilliantly fooled.

 

The Result

A national news sensation that generated 618+ million earned media impressions, with coverage across top-tier business, tech, lifestyle, and cultural outlets, including TIME, CNBC, CNET, The Verge, The Wall Street Journal, Elle, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Forbes, Fortune, The Washington Post and more.