I saw a TV spot for Lexus the other day. What you said about the car beauty shot reminded me of it. They have the really nice Lexus doing things like doughnuts, power slides and all these crazy car stunts. The names of the tricks are in a fancy script font, there's opera playing in the background and at the end it says "Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should." I just thought it was a nice change from those standard "hugging the curves" road shots. The cinematography and lighting is really nice in that Lexus ad.
YouTube Video (if they haven't removed it yet)