Earlier last month, Lexus launched the “Darker Side of Green” campaign to a perplexed auto industry, although this isn’t the first time Lexus has perplexed audiences. The campaign goes after the young, hip, environmentally conscious crowd who doesn’t want to give up styling and handling to save the planet.
Enter Lexus Dark Ride, a 12:30 interactive movie experience that takes the user for a ride in the brand’s new hybrid compact car, the CT 200h. If you can get passed the load time and the ridiculous premise that you have to help navigate the CT 200h home “before dawn” without getting photographed by the automotive paparazzi… it’s an interesting interactive piece.

“Although a bit long to sit through, it kept me watching until the end. What I like about this interactive video, is that it isn’t feature, feature, feature, let me tell you about the feature. There are some gratuitous dash and panel shots, but it is all about the experience. They have a nice integration with Facebook, however I would have liked to see them go farther with it.” Paulette Adams

Taking a cue from many video game or movie trailer + Facebook integrations to come before it, Lexus integrates the user’s Facebook profile, webcam and microphone to help make the experience more personalized. While not a total success, the alignment to the younger entertainment industry certainly reinforces who they are going after and how they are doing it.