A scene from "New World, Same Energy" campaign by Acura.
Acura’s latest brand campaign begins opening a portal to the electrified future of the Honda-owned luxury-performance brand even as it underscores the gasoline-powered chops of a marque that has been working for years to be admired for how it tears down the highway.
“New World, Same Energy” features a 60-second TV commercial that showcases Acura’s current high-performance models including a glimpse of the 2024 Integra Type S, “driven” by the anime racing hero, Chiaki, of Chiaki’s Journey, as well as the all-electric Acura Precision EV Concept that previews the styling of the zero-emissions 2024 Acura ZDX and ZDX Type S.
“It was a challenge to have Acura continue down the performance-branding road into the world of electrification,” Meliza Humphrey, Acura’s senior brand manager, told me. “One thing we can’t forget about is that we still have an ICE model lineup, and we wanted to show the full lineup toay and still count on the fact that it is a performance brand and that we offer fun and exciting vehicles to drive.”
The campaign had a huge presence at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, last winter as well as during the March Madness basketball tournament. Against a soundtrack by Motley Crue, the spot depicted six different “dynamic worlds” inside the campaign’s Acura “multiverse,” including a “lunar-verse” and an “EV-verse.”
“This is the tip of the spear for Acura for electrification,” Humphrey said, “and for American Honda. We are bypassing hybrids altogether and going directly to electric vehicles.” Honda plans for its vehicle lineups to be all-electric by 2040. Honda global CEO Toshihiro Mibe outlined the company’s vision for global sales of electrified vehicles as part of Honda’s strategy to achieve carbon neutrality for its products and corporate activities by 2050.
