Image Credit: Lucid.
I've just been handed a dispatch from the front lines of marketing, and it seems the good folks at Lucid have found a revolutionary way to make their new electric SUV, the Gravity, look small. They hired a pair of absolute giants to stand next to it... very clever tactic. If you can't tell people the dimensions, just find someone who's seven feet tall and make the Gravity look like a hatchback!
The giants in question are Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, a couple of basketball superstars from the New York Knicks. Lucid says this new "collaboration" (I call it "paying famous people to hold your product") is all about "celebrating those who refuse to settle for the status quo." A noble sentiment, to be sure.
Image Credit: Lucid.
The campaign is launching with "bold" ads around the Knicks' home opener. And Lucid, along with their new tall friends, plans to showcase "how precise performance, cultural influence, and athletic excellence come together." I am fascinated by this. What "precise performance" are we talking about? Is its 0-60 time "culturally influenced"? Does its range, measured in "athletic excellence," mean it can only drive as far as Josh Hart can sprint before getting winded? These are the questions that keep a journalist like me up at night.
Naturally, the players have a few things to say. Jalen tells us, "To be one of the best, you have to be willing to do whatever it takes... I see that same passion for excellence in Lucid." Josh chimes in that success is about "pushing to new limits," and he's "seen all of that and more at Lucid." That's wonderful, chaps. Really stirring stuff. While you were there, did you happen to see a price tag?
Image Credit: Lucid.
This isn't Lucid's first trip to the "famous person" rodeo, oh no. This new gig "builds on" their "Driven" campaign, which they launched with none other than Timothée Chalamet. So, they've got thespians, they've got athletes... they're really just a pop star and a celebrity chef away from having a full set of "people who are vaguely aware of our brand" action figures. This "underscores the brand's mission to compromise nothing," they say.
Lucid hasn't just cornered the market on basketball. The company is branching into football, too, popping 'round to NFL star Travis Kelce's "Kelce Car Jam." For every test drive, Lucid donated $87 to his charity. Eighty-seven dollars. Not $80, not $90, not a round $100. I have to admire the specificity. It's a level of numerical precision I desperately wish they would apply to Gravity's actual range.
Image Credit: Lucid.
So, what do we know about this "chariot fit for the king"? We know it's an SUV. We know it's electric. And we know it'll probably look small next to Shaquille O'Neal. We know the only version on sale right now is the $94,900 Grand Touring with 828 ponies at your disposal and a 909 lb-ft mountain of torque. We know that despite its gigantic frame, it'll dispatch with the 60 mph sprint quicker than Usain Bolt - 3.5 seconds exactly. And we know that it promises to go for up to 450 miles on a full charge, only to run out of juice after about 350…
But the most hilarious part of this whole marketing blitz is a little tidbit about Lucid trolling Tesla on social media. Apparently, they asked Elon Musk's own AI, "Grok," what the "best luxury EV" is. Grok's answer? The 2025 Lucid Air. Not the Gravity, the very SUV they're paying Jalen and Josh to look tall next to! You couldn't write comedy this good.
Image Credit: Lucid.
And just to rub salt in the wound, the dispatch notes that ChatGPT and CoPilot also said the Lucid Air was the best. So, we have a clear consensus from our future robot overlords that Lucid's sedan is fantastic. Which, to be fair, it is! The Air is a spectacular piece of engineering. It's got range, it's got power, and it's got a price tag that will make your eyes water.
Look, I love the electric revolution. I'm probably its biggest fan. I genuinely believe Lucid is building some of the most advanced EVs on the planet. But this press release is just fluff. Pure sizzle. It's a celebrity-stuffed sandwich with no meat. Zero, nada... I'm being told that a bunch of very successful, very wealthy people are "driven," and for that reason I should also feel "driven" to buy... something? Oh, I feel driven… away.
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