Since its launch in 1986, Acura has been the plucky upstart and thorn in the side of the traditional titans of luxury automotive. Competing against brands with centuries of combined experience, Acura carved out a niche of its own with innovative mid-tier performance.

For its 30th anniversary, Acura wanted to celebrate its three decades of disruption in the luxury space, showcasing its racing heritage, its most iconic models and, most important, the rebellious spirit that made it all possible.

In the film, we explore Acura’s heritage of achievements not as a walk through history but as a celebration of the youthful and naive spirit that fueled its challenger spirit—the same spirit and wild optimism that was required to launch the brand in the face of the establishment 30 years ago, which the brand continues to exude today.

Acura has been wildly successful for its modest 30 years, particularly as it steals share from brands with centuries of history such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi. During its short run, Acura has developed iconic models that reset the bar in the category for quality, durability and, in many cases, design.

Acura could not celebrate this heritage in the traditional way. Taking a historic perspective was the conventional way its competitors used to dust off their 80- and 100-year-old models.

Rather than emphasize our age, particularly among competitors with exceedingly longer existences, we championed Acura’s youthfulness and the “we didn’t know we couldn’t do that” spirit that made it all possible.

VO:

When you’re young, you do crazy things, you do wild things

Nobody can tell you what to do when you’re young,

You scheme your schemes and you dream your dreams.

When you’re young, you want to see the world, you want to embrace the world

and more than anything else, you want to change the world.

When you’re young, you ignore hierarchy, empower anarchy,

you revere the risk-takers, and idolize the trouble-makers.

You live fast, never letting off the gas.

Now that’s what you do when you’re young,

Today is day one,

30 years in the making,

and as long as we make it fun, the future is ours for the taking.

This what we make, and this is how we make it.