Once in a great long while there’s a truly smashing advert for something. Once in an almost-never it’s for a car. Honda’s 2003 Accord spot “Cog” is such an advert. It drove huge traffic to Honda websites and dealerships, it won awards, it drew accusations of plagiarism. It spurred a making-of (everything you see actually, really happened; it’s not CGI) and other bonus content on its own DVD anyone could send for—if you want one now, check eBay—and it’s the subject of a fairly lengthy Wikipedia article wherein you can read about the plagiarism flap. North Americans didn’t get this ad (dangit) or this Accord (dammit). Now watch it again, this time in fullscreen HD.
Er…actually, make that twice in a great long while and twice in an almost-never, because the year after “Cog”, Honda put out “Grr”:
Like wow, man, this fab advert for Honda’s clean-and-quiet diesel engines is far-out in a groovy kind of way! It’s narrated and sung by Garrison Keilor (I won’t hold that against Honda…much…), and has a Wiki page of its own. Good thing—or too bad—this spot wasn’t VW’s, because then think of the parodies and mockery. Like the Accord wagon in “Cog”, Honda diesels weren’t and aren’t sold in North America; chalk up two more on the list of nice things we can’t have because reasons.
Lr Cog was definitely a very striking and I suspect effective advert. The hate something love something, which I don’t specificallyremember, less effective, as it appears to be more about diesels than Honda.
The Cog commercial is addictive — I’ve watched it several times now and each time I’m more amazed. Too bad about the plagiarism controversy… to me it seems that Cog was inspired by the idea rather than plagiarizing the details, but I’ll just leave it at that. Grr to Honda for not offering the Accord wagon in the US, though!
As for the “Hate Something, Change Something” ad: Well, I don’t think I’m the target audience for that one. It was a struggle for me to get through watching it once!
“The Cog” ad ,due to the nature of its continuous action and wish not to use any CGI, had to be repeated quite a few times, to be done just right. Apparently, they did in in 808th take…..
I just love that Garrison Keilor dit the narration, he has one of the best voices. “Isn’t it nice, when things just…. work?” must’ve been the best paid copy of his life.
North American car ads are just abysmal, just consumer morons getting surprised about J.D. Power awards by some douche with a beard.
The second ad is so cutesy I want to strangle it, but it makes a substantitive point about the product they’re peddling, not this first impression/breaking perceptions “not your granduncle’s _____” crap. The first one is just damn fun to watch, that’s the type of ad that would turned me into a mechanically obsessed car guy when I was a kid.
Those Chevy commercials are the worst. Same underlying theme as the Buick ones: “We know this will surprise you because we know our reputation is crap.”
+1 on how annoying those Chevy ads are. The level of bimbosity displayed in the “surprised” folks is off the charts. And to the d-bag with the beard… it grates on my nerves whenever he talks of all the J.D. Power awards in “Initial” Quality…. Ok, what about “IN THE LONG RUN” Quality.
I test drove the Cruze when I was looking for a commuter car. The salesman raved about the technology to save gas, like an engine that shuts itself off at a red light, and starts up immediately when the light turns green and you call for power. How’s that going to work out in the long run when you wear out a starter (unless it uses some sort of flywheel inertia to start the car back up).
He also lied about, “Our car is the only car with Apple Car Play”…. Um, No.
I went to the Honda dealer. Got a really nice Civic. It has Apple Car Play. It’s also faster, handles better than the Chevy, and gets better gas mileage… WITHOUT the stop/restart gimmick. Maybe GM has something there with their technological wonder. But my subconscious mind kept saying V8-6-4… V8-6-4… No thanks, guys.
at the 0:26 mark how do they make the wheels go uphill? that’s the only portion that looks like it defies physics / gravity or whatever.
saw this commercial years ago on the net. i knew that the accord wagon was here as the acura wagon for a bit and if you look at the front end in the commercial you can see the acura beak o so prominent.
I’d bet the wheels were carefully balanced toward the top quarter. I recall years ago seeing a TV spot about how all this was done, but I don’t recall details. A very cool ad, but I’m thinking the people who set it all up and shot it were glad to be done with it when they finally got the take they wanted!
Looks like they may be sitting on something and as mentioned above they are probably balanced with something on the backside. I don’t really like that part because regardless of whether or not it is real, it looks fake, and that detracts from the rest of it.
I wondered the same thing about the wheels going up the ramp seemingly defying gravity. The counterweight idea from tiredoldmechanic has merit, as once the rotation starts, it seems to speed up as though spring-loaded. I think Phil L is correct though in saying, “whether or not it is real, it looks fake” in an otherwise flawless execution.
I was talking to a Acura sales guy at the Motor Trend International Auto Show in Baltimore this past weekend who says that the Acura TLX is the European Accord, which may speak to that Acura beak on the wagon. I noticed that too. The CC effect strikes again, this time in conversation. ;o)
I also watched the behind the scenes making of mini-doc. The wheels were weighted in such a way that they would roll ‘up-hill’. Definitely made it look a bit fake, but it was cool to see how they actually did it.
Even after reading the explanation on Wikipedia, I don’t see where the plagiarism claim could have any merit. Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist, and his actual works are presumably subject to copyright, but the general idea of a working three dimensional “Rube Goldberg machine” is surely in the public domain. In fact, Wikipedia’s own page for “Rube Goldberg Machine” indicates the overall idea developed independently in several places.
One of my favorite commercials ever. Saw it on the web some years back, and consequently I’ve seen it many, many times, but I just had to watch it again–twice. Truly impressive even if the uphill tire and rolling muffler bits seem to bend physics just a bit.
I was enamored of this commercial when it came out. (Sucked that the car advertised was a hot wagon that the US didn’t get!!!) I watched it over and over and over again, showing it to anyone who would watch.
I watched the mini-doc about the making of it. I thought that there had to be some digital trickery going on, especially with the wheels rolling up hill.
The wheels were actually weighted in such a way that allowed for them to roll ‘uphill’. It was neat to see how they did that.
I also read that there was only one scene that was digitally enhanced. It was when the muffler rolls across the floor. The studio space that they had wasn’t long enough to do the entire sequence in a linear fashion. So the sequence was split in half. The split occurs when the muffler rolls across the floor, and that is the only digital manipulation done… to join the two sequences together. The first half was set up and filmed up to the point of the muffler rolling across the floor. Then the second half was set up just before the muffler and to the end of the car. Each half was filmed several times until they got each half in one complete take. The two takes were joined together at the muffler and voila!!! Magic!
Awesome commercial. I too saw it years ago, but completely forgot about it. Thank You for the refresh! That said, gonna watch it again 🙂