- Colin and Samir have launched Colin & Samir Start Over, a new branded series with Lexus.
- The show follows the duo road-tripping in the Lexus GX 550 and RZ 550e, a concept rooted in personal reinvention.
- Both hosts lost their homes in the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, and that experience directly shaped the show's pitch.
- The deal was brokered through Google's Creative Works consultancy; new episodes roll out through the rest of 2026.
Colin and Samir, Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry, hosts of The Colin and Samir Show, have launched a branded series with Lexus called Colin & Samir Start Over.
The show follows the pair traveling the country in the Lexus GX 550 and RZ 550e, reconnecting with the outdoors and chasing creative reinvention.
The idea has a personal root: both hosts lost their homes in last year’s L.A. wildfires, an experience that pushed them to pitch Lexus something more honest than a standard car ad.
Chaudry also had an earlier, informal brush with the brand. He once auditioned for a Lexus commercial during the pandemic, a story he shared on their podcast that reportedly caught a YouTube partner manager’s attention and helped set this deal in motion.
The project was built with Creative Works, Google’s in-house brand-creator consultancy, alongside the Lexus marketing team. Colin and Samir have previously worked with brands including Samsung, Shopify, and StoryBlocks.
For Lexus, this continues a broader creator-marketing push. The automaker recently tapped Grammy winner Laufey for a Miles Davis-inspired campaign, gifting her a custom EV.
Other 2026 deals show the same pattern: teen creator Embreigh Courtlyn’s Target fashion line and Kareem Rahma’s recent UTA signing both reflect how heavily brands and agencies are betting on creator-led storytelling this year.
Takeaways
This isn’t a one-off sponsored video; Lexus is funding an entire series built around a real, personal story, which is a much bigger bet on authenticity than a typical automotive campaign.
It also shows Google’s Creative Works quietly becoming a matchmaker between major brands and top YouTube talent, almost like a studio system for creators.
And for two hosts whose whole show is about dissecting creator-brand deals, this is a genuinely meta moment: Colin and Samir are now the case study they’d normally be breaking down.
Will more automakers start funding full creator-led series instead of one-off sponsorships? Does building a campaign around real personal hardship make it feel more authentic, or does it risk exploiting that hardship for marketing?
