Chika Kako

THE intuition of a female engineer at Lexus has led not only to her becoming the first woman to create a new Lexus, but one who provided the inspiration for an ad campaign based around a car that is able to predict its driver’s every move before it happens.

The television ad for the latest Lexus small SUV, the UX, was created by M&C Saatchi. It features a woman driving through traffic as hands mysteriously appear to pass her a coffee, put on sunglasses and direct her through traffic. The ad is played to the soundtrack of Beck’s I’m So Free.

The woman behind the car is Chika Kako, who joined Toyota as a chemical engineer in 1999 and two years later became the company’s first female engineer to work overseas, following an appointment to Toyota Europe.

In Europe, Ms Kako was given a special assignment to enhance the product appeal of interiors, analysing differences between European and Japanese values. One of her designs was the original Lexus LS.

She was promoted to the Lexus brand planning department back in Japan and then, within 12 months, transferred to the product planning division to develop the interior of the mid-size RX SUV, including the first-generation touchpad input system.

In 2012, Ms Kako made history as Toyota’s first female chief engineer, first taking on refreshing the Lexus CT200h hatchback, to which she made almost 100 design changes.

The UX is her first project from scratch.

M&C Saatchi Melbourne executive creative director Emma Robbins said in a statement that the ad campaign showed the UX to be “human”.

“When Lexus creates a new SUV that can sense you approaching, remembers how you like to drive and knows when to switch to self-charging hybrid electric, it really does feel like it’s human,” she said.

“So, this idea felt really right. Beck thought so too.”

The campaign is already under way on TV and rolling out to cinema, digital and social.

By Neil Dowling

Lexus UX