News and views on visual communications from the writers of Creative Review

New Honda commercial

Eliza 04/02/08, 12:16

Problem Playground ad for Honda, Agency: Wieden + Kennedy London, Creatives: Sam Heath, Frank Ginger, Director: Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, Production company: Partizan

Following the huge success of Cog, Grrr, and Choir, it’s always interesting to see where Wieden + Kennedy will go next in its advertising for Honda. So it was exciting to receive their latest commercial for the brand at CR towers this morning.

Problem Playground introduces the new Honda FCX Clarity, the first zero-emission hydrogen car to go into production. The ad takes as its theme the idea of game-playing as a means of solving difficulties and is a continuation of the recent print campaign, which encouraged people online to a special website, problemplayground.com. On the TV spot, we find a bunch of boffins using retro children’s games, such as jigsaw puzzles and Rubik’s cubes, to illustrate engineering problems that have been solved by Honda, including the hybrid engine and energy efficient solar panels. They even slot in a small reference to Cog by creating a chain reaction with coffee cups and sugar cubes on a tea break.

While perhaps not as striking as some of the earlier spots for Honda (perhaps we are now expecting too much?), the team at Wieden’s have once again found a visually interesting way of demonstrating what could be potentially boring car facts. However, as always, the spot ends with Garrison Keillor’s voiceover spelling out the message of the ad – a feature of Honda campaigns that gets more patronising and irritating with every spot. Maybe time for a change there?

Posted in Advertising Commercials TV

(16 comments)

W+K have a cool short animation they made for Honda posted on their blog “welcome to optimism”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t8CsUDP-7Q

In my opinion it’s better than the TV ad.
That said, I do like the “Problem Playground” to. Very nice choice of music.
I agree with what you say, it’s not as good as the previous Honda ads, it’s the problem with having made such good ads previously, it’s not easy to keep the bar so high up.

Posted by André Breda on 04/02/08, 12:52 pm

Never has an advert highlighted the mentality of design discourse. Of the Drones, Doozer’s and Worker ants. Programmed to ‘solve problems’ and never to ask ‘who is setting the problem?’ or ‘does our solution create new problems?’.
For example, solar panels do not just appear from ‘nowhere’ as a material ready to provide technological answers to political question, there is a whole process in their construction that creates its own pollution. Without critically reflecting on these points designers allow their creative thinking to be tampered, limited and directed by the concerns of profit before creativity.
With that concern in mind, It would be encouraging to see a little more thought emerge from CR when presenting these visual tropes. Not so much the power of dreams, but the power of nightmares.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=881321004838285177

Posted by 374 on 04/02/08, 1:33 pm

“Patronising and irritating”? I’d say reassuring and a consistent part of the Honda brand.

Is that music from The Life Aquatic?

Posted by Ed Wright on 04/02/08, 2:20 pm

God I am so bored of these look how clever we are building things in a real world setting, accompanied by some kookie music type adverts.
It seems to be an advertising creative these days you just spend all day on youtube, then just rip something off you’ve seen that you like. Its just so depressing. We get it, you can build things in the real world, your company is all friendly and cuddly and you are not at all just ripping of an ad that ripped of an ad that ripped off an ad that ripped off something from Youtube.
If I see one more ad where some smug looking people building something I’m going to be sick.

Posted by Bob on 04/02/08, 2:56 pm

feels very similar conceptually to the skoda cake ad posted here last week. not really sure what all the fuss is about.

Posted by Rich on 04/02/08, 6:35 pm

Apparently Skoda and Honda are merging…
http://www.edencakes.com/portfolio/portfolioview.php?pic=22

PS Couldn’t afford Will Smith then?
http://www.irintech.com/x1/blogarchive.php?id=1205

Posted by James Stone on 05/02/08, 1:06 am

It’s pretty uninspiring to be honest. I get the whole puzzle concept but it’s an also ran versus speaking with a distinctive voice which is what I always found appealing about Honda’s advertising. I would have expected Skoda’s Cake from Honda, not this.

Posted by Dave on 05/02/08, 6:30 am

i like the Rubik’s Cube start, after that… boring

Posted by Jay on 05/02/08, 6:34 pm

…and we know the Life Aquatic oundtrack by now

Posted by Jay on 05/02/08, 6:37 pm

The rubik cube art thing has been done before…how do these people earn their money really?

http://www.space-invaders.com/rubikubism.html

Posted by Bob on 06/02/08, 1:24 pm

It seems conceptually misplaced: the echoes of Skoda cake will definitely haunt Honda for some time to come and as for the reference to the Cog ad… the implication here is that people outside of Honda and the creative agencies they employ will even vaguely remember this reference. Doh.
For me this is an agency and a marketing division running out of ideas. But more importantly, did it leave me inspired to go get a Honda. Absolutely not, but I did enjoy a nice coffee in Starbucks.
The website features some nice Flash programming. Unfortunately not in an immersive, interactive way but in a “look what a team the size of a football squad and a chunky budget can do” kind of way. As far removed from creativity as it’s possible to get. A shame.

Posted by jaffa on 07/02/08, 2:48 pm

Honda, and all car manufacturers for that matter, should stop spending money on commercials that tell potential customers they are trying to produce alternative ways to power cars. Instead they should be investing that money into actually pushing these new options to market.

Posted by Kevin on 10/02/08, 11:05 pm

Quite interesting. But on a different (but similar-esque)level I prefer Fallon’s recent ad for Skoda.The bakery universe is quite original and disruptive for a car ad/category.

Posted by the hidden persuader on 11/02/08, 9:00 am

I find it funny how people relate it to the Skoda ad? Is that because it too hasn’t got a car travelling up the Amalfi coast, or that it consists of a lot of people making something? But then, Isn’t that what a car company does?

Posted by James Stone on 12/02/08, 4:40 pm

And the cheerfulness of the children added a relish to his existence.

Posted by Cruger on 19/02/08, 10:16 am

Hey does anybody know the name of the music? I know it’s off The Life Aquatic….

Cheers

Posted by Patch on 15/03/08, 8:34 pm