Honda is asking the British public to recreate its own ‘at-home’ version of the marque's famous ‘Cog’ advert, which was first aired in 2003 but rapidly became regarded as one of the most iconic TV ad slots of all time.
The original 120-second long advert saw a dismantled Honda Accord create a chain reaction in the style of a massive Rube Goldberg machine. It took its original makers some seven months to plan and execute the ad, which was only shown 10 times over a 10 day period in April 2003, due to the high cost of such lengthy TV advertising slot. Now, the British public has been asked to raid cupboards and sheds in order to create their own masterpieces.
The public has a lot to live up to though, because the original Honda version quickly became a captivating classic, with the Japanese marque experiencing a massive spike in its online traffic after the initial airing some 17 years ago. Now, Honda has joined Haribo, Aldi, Weetabix and Walkers in encouraging the general public to recreate classic adverts and submit them for judging.
“The original Cog advert took 606 takes between testing and filming to capture the final cut,” commented Jean-Marc Streng, President of Honda UK. “So we are really looking forward to seeing how ITV’s viewers recreate Honda’s precision engineering in producing their version of our iconic Cog advert. However, we would not recommend them taking their car apart to do so!”
The winning recreations will be aired on Saturday 23rd May during Britain’s Got Talent. The winners will be judged to be the best and most innovative replica commercials by a panel of ITV senior staff.
Simon Daglish, Deputy Managing Director at ITV Commercial said, “Lockdown has inspired so much creativity from households up and down the country, and to celebrate that we’ve collaborated with five brands to dedicate a whole ad break to the viewers at home. The People’s Ad Break is all about championing imagination and ingenuity and we’re looking forward to seeing some of our favourite ads reimagined!”
Keyword: Honda tasks British public with recreating its famous ‘Cog’ advert