When you list all the car ads that have come and gone, Wieden + Kennedy’s 2003 ad, The Cog for Honda pushes its way up to a very high position.
The British Rube Goldberg-style commercial for the Honda Accord was achieved in a single take (after 70 failed attempts) with no special effects using more than 85 individual parts of the new Accord.
The full 120 second version of the advertisement aired only 10 times in all, and only in the 10 days after the initial screening. A 60 second and five 30 second variations continued to air for a further six weeks. The media spread it throughout the world.
In the UK, the 30 second cut-downs made use of newly-introduced interactive options on the Sky Digital television network. Viewers were encouraged to press a button on their remote control, which brought up a menu that allowed them to see the full 120 second version of the commercial. Other menu options included placing an order for a free documentary DVD and a brochure for the Honda Accord.
More than 250,000 people used the menu option, spending an average of two and a half minutes in the commercial. A significant number watched the looped 120 second version for up to ten minutes. Of those who opened the menu, 10,000 requested either a DVD or a brochure, and Honda used the data collected from the interactive option to arrange a number of test drives.
The DVD was also included as an insert in 1.2 million newspapers in the first week of the commercial’s rollout. It contained a making-of documentary featuring interviews and behind-the-scenes footage of the production process, a virtual tour of the Accord, the original music video to Rapper’s Delight by the Sugarhill Gang, and an illustrated guide to all the parts shown in Cog.
Cog received more awards than any commercial in history at the time. It was the most awarded commercial of 2004 as well as the 33rd-most-awarded commercial of 2003. The jury for the British Television Advertising Awards gave the piece the highest score of any commercial ever recorded.
Ad agency ds+p, Honda Canada and the Ontario Honda Dealers have just made a rather nice sequel to Cog. Although it;s just 18 seconds long, with far fewer parts than the original, not everything goes to plan. The message is, only use genuine Honda parts.
It, too, was achieved in a single take. After 175 failed ones.
Credits:
Agency: ds+p
Founding partner: Doug Robinson
Creative director: Brian Murray
Art directors: Matthew Camara & Ryan Dzur
Copywriters: Brian Murray & Sam Cote
Agency producer: Sean Paul Brady
Account management: Adam White, Jorge Velis & Sean Paul Brady
Production: The Video Store
Director: Ante Kovac
Executive producers: Ian Webb, Harland Weiss & Donovan Boden
DoP: Kris Bonnell
Production designer: Jay Pooley
Editing: Married to Giants
Colour: Alter Ego
VFX: Wingman
Executive Producer: Samantha Simpson, Wingman
Sound Design & mix: SNDWRx Audio Postproduction
Client: Honda Canada & Ontario Honda Dealers Association
Honda central zone manager: Ray Chong
Honda field engineering specialist: Michael Menard
