Honda Accord Ad [Adland (paid sub, but it's only two Euros)]
Honda Accord Ad [official site, video file requires QuickTime]
Alternative Source [larger view, requires Flash 6, pirate page, may disappear]
UK Telegraph: Lights! Camera! Retake!
UK Daily Record: Take 606
Ad Age: Honda's Two-Minute 'Cog' Spot Is an Instant Classic
Ad Age: 'Cog' and the Auteur Fantasies of Creative Directors
This is one of the most amazing ads I've ever seen, truly a thing of beauty. Fully two minutes long, it's a Honda commercial call "Cog," the most elaborate Rube Goldberg device you've ever seen set to film, all made entirely of car parts. According to the news stories linked above, it required 606 film takes to get right. It's so perfectly filmed, you can't imagine it, you've just got to see it.
Try to click the "Alternative Source" link above for a bigger version of the ad than Honda offers on its own site. It's so worth it (high speed connection a must), but since it's an anonymous site, who knows if it will be there by the time you find this.
Not surprisingly, it's from Wieden & Kennedy, the brilliant TV agency behind most of Nike's amazing ads. One thing I do understand, however, is WK's reluctance to embrace the Net more as a showcase for their work. Try to find digital versions of Nike ads, it's almost impossible to find an archive of good sized files to enjoy and pass along to your friends, etc. They're like the best advertainment agency out there, and they are still very stand-offish about online, so far as I observe.
The Telegraph story is a nicely written feature that gives a rare glimpse inside the actual photo shoot for an ad this complicated:
As take 300 led to 400 which led to 500, a certain madness settled on the crew. Rob Steiner, the agency producer, started talking about "our friends, the parts", but in the slightly menacing tone of a primary school teacher discussing her charges at the end of a trying day. Some workers on the film went whole days without sleep and had to be asked to stay away from the more delicate parts of the assembly. Others started to have bad dreams about throttle activator shafts and bonnet release cables.
This ad should definitely go down as an advertising legend.
Related Posts:
email this story «