What do you get when you mix hit television series, House of Cards, and automobiles?  Lexus, apparently!  According to Jamie LaReau with Auto News, Lexus recently got a lucky surprise when their brand name was mentioned, in good context, in an episode of House of Cards.  During this episode, fictional Russian President Petrov briefly pontificated about cars stating, “The first time I…in a Lexus. You could never do that in a Lada. No space. You see, Mr. President, I want the Lexus and you’re trying to sell me a Lada.”

Twitter users wasted no time buzzing about it – as many tweeted the phrase “I want the Lexus and you’re trying to sell me the Lada.”  What a lot of viewers wanted to know, was whether this reference was clever product placement, or if Toyota’s luxury brand just got lucky.  Turns out, they got lucky!

“This is totally organic, nothing we placed,” said Maurice Durand, a Lexus spokesman.  However, what makes matters a little more interesting, is that this isn’t the first time the Lexus brand and a house of cards have linked up.  “Lexus made an iconic commercial in 2009 featuring houses of cards to demonstrate that the 2009 Lexus ES has an engine so smooth it emits no vibrations.”  Durand has admitted that he doesn’t think the 2009 commercial influenced House of Cards to hold up Lexus as a metaphor for desire and world dominance, but who’s to say?

Check out the 2009 Lexus commercial with a house of cards on our home page!