Cool Honda commercial

Via Graham Glass:

Check out this incredible Honda commercial. Apparently, everything is for real and there are no computer graphics. It took 606 takes to get right, three months to complete, and cost $6 million.

That had to be an excruciating photo shoot. You know the agency people were getting a bit worried by take #600 and the client's saying, "Are you sure I didn't just waste $6 million on a cool but non-executable idea?"

Comments

[Mitch]

Oops the URL might have been chopped off!

http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/news
/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/04/13/nhonda13.xml

[Mitch]

Hi! This very cool commercial came out over a year ago. Here's a good explanation for the physics behind it. Cheers!

http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/04/13/nhonda13.xml

[mike]

Yes, it was a nice commercial and it is clearly inspired by the 1987
film "The Way Things Go" by Peter Fischli & David Weiss. That film
contains a full 30 minutes of that sort of stuff - adding water and
flames to the assorted mechanics.

The original film is available at Amazon.com

[ggrrhh]

"Apparently, everything is for real and there are no computer graphics"

Now that's why I hate marketing. You guys, first check the fact please and learn some physics and computer animation. Then, and only then start to study marketing and write this type of bullshit.

[Robert Paterson]

Play is another take away for me.

Non creative work is so hard and dull. To have made this work, the team must have had to have played all the time. Imagine a Project Plan that would have been able to line up the items and make them work - not possible! They had to have an intention and then play their way there.

Imagine Gandalf with a project plan for the Ring and the Hobbits?

If we played with our services and products and we let our customers in ion the game - wouldn't that create a different type of relationship and a different kind of business? Would it be more rewarding for all?

[jennifer rice]

Found another blog post about this commercial (which is named "Cog") from WordLab (http://www.wordlab.com/2004_05_01_archive.cfm#108576289549361894). Here's a snip:

"It's interesting, too, that the word "cog" is used for the title of this advert. A cog is the tooth on the rim of gear wheel, and it bears a physical connection to automobile mechanics in the efficient working of rack and pinion steering and the effective transmission of power from the engine to the wheels. In the film, the cog is the small piece of the mechanical puzzle that starts it all working.
A powerful word, "cog" evokes work--efficient and effective work. It implies integration in the works. A small but important connecting piece in the organization. And, its value-added goes to the extraordinary results achieved. It's in this sense that the word cog works, behind the scenes, as an effectve element of the branding of companies as different as Contract Office Group and Happy Cog Studios. Nowhere on those websites is there offered any explanation whatsoever of the name cog. Isn't it nice when names just work?"