One More Reason To Love Hondas
18Apr2003 Filed under: Product PlacementThis ad is one more reason to love Honda. Not a single special effect was used in the making of the commercial. Which is probably why it took them 606 takes to get it all to work right.
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.When things were going wrong — a tyre that kept trundling off to the left, or a rocker shaft that kept toppling over like a tipsy cyclist — the production lads on the shoot would start grumbling that “the parts are being very moody today”.
And as for the car itself? I have to admit that I deeply miss my Honda wagon. They stopped making the Civic Wagon. But now! The Accord Wagon! Well, at least in Europe. What I want to know is why does Europe get the Wagon, and we get the Tonka-esque plastic monstrosity that is the Honda Element?
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12 Responses to “One More Reason To Love Hondas”
Hey there. I'm Ariel Meadow Stallings, a native Seattleite who's written my way up and down the Left Coast. Electrolicious is where I post daily randomata, but I also write for a living. My first book, Offbeat Bride, was published last year.
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Becky
April 19th, 2003 at 2:26 am
I love my Honda even more after watching that commercial. And to think… I didn’t know it was possible to love my Civic any more then I already did.
b
April 19th, 2003 at 10:00 am
i’ve read that there is one special effect that was needed to tie the two halves of the commercial together. i think it’s the part with the rolling muffler.
but i agree.. an amazing commercial.
db
April 19th, 2003 at 12:51 pm
Eh- I miss my little Civic. I miss the stares I get when I pulled my big-ass upright bass out the back of it, seemingly defying physics…great commercial- I always dig these kinda things. I used to have a something I taped off of PBS years back called “The Way Things Work”. Very similar- just take out the exclusive auto part use and add the gratuitous use of flammables..very cool!
Ariel
April 19th, 2003 at 9:24 pm
Where’d you read that, B? Everything I’ve read about the advert says that they did over 600 takes so that they could get the whole thing in one shot.
b
April 19th, 2003 at 10:45 pm
dailyrecord.co.uk
andy
April 20th, 2003 at 2:11 pm
because americans like “chunky”, apparently. when the exchange students come here (britain) to study, one of the first things a lot of them say is “wow - the cars look crappy!”. cos they’re all small and stuff. but then, i guess i’ll get to see american tank-cars when i go on *my* exchange next year. fun.
andy
April 20th, 2003 at 2:15 pm
and i’ve been wanting to see that ad for a while. i didn’t know what everyone was talking about, and now i do, so it’s all solved. thanks.
dori
April 20th, 2003 at 6:08 pm
yay - “tonka-esque”! i love -esque. that was a good one.
i miss having a car, PERIOD.
Bryan
April 20th, 2003 at 11:47 pm
Ok … here are the places where I found that this could NEVER have been done without special effects.
- The tires roll uphill.
- The aforementioned muffler roll
- When the metal cylinder rolls into the window after it is pushed by some wrenchy-looking things. We assume the plank is on an incline, as when the window gives way, the cylinder starts rolling again. If the plank was on an incline, the cylinder wouldn’t stop right before the second wrenchy-looking thing.
And as for the car in question, i love my civic, and would by a whole fleet of them if i could.
cameron
April 21st, 2003 at 6:29 am
I don’t know about the metal cyliner or the muffler, but apparently the tires were weighted to roll uphill (not too hard, just put some weights on the top inside part of the tire). There’s a slashdot article from about 4 or 5 days ago discussing this to death, of course.
db
April 21st, 2003 at 6:49 am
Cameron beat me to that one- notice the ball bearings on the inside of the wheels. On that PBS program I mentioned, a similar tire-trick was used- same way- ball bearings. NOt sure about the other things. The muffler roll looked legit to me, but I haven’t figured out the window part yet.
xtimu
April 21st, 2003 at 9:13 pm
what’s even more interesting is that they ripped the damn thing off without a word of acknowledgement for the inspiration!