Pity the fool
Although it was wildly popular throughout ad agency creative departments, Honda UK’s two–minute “Cog” will not be seen by US audiences. A US Honda executive acknowledged the Wieden & Kennedy, London, spot was “cute as a button”, but said it wouldn’t work in America, due to lack of product benefits and the high cost of 120 seconds of airtime.
The ad in question, which you can see with its pals at Ad Age is fantastic. It screened here in Australia for quite a while earlier this year and generated all kinds of buzz; not just around the water cooler but in the media, too. Costing £6 million and requiring 606 takes before it was done right, there are no special effects or trick photography involved; it is in itself a work of art.
Why not the US, then? Cost is one thing for sure, but the success of a marketing campaign is generally accepted as an offset to that investment. Do US Honda execs believe that Americans just wouldn’t like the ad? Not “get it”, perhaps? Do they believe that Americans, unlike Britons and Australians, wouldn’t sit silent, awestruck as something so intriguing works its way across their television screens for two minutes? Generally speaking, television advertising is noisy, annoying, and ultimately forgettable —we tend to look away or chat with those around us during ad breaks— but I am always fascinated by commercials that are subtle, or silent. Silence coming from the television is such a break in the monotony of the usual “SALE, SALE, SALE on RUGS, RUGS, RUGS!” bullshit we see every day that I turn around to see what could be wrong with the TV.
To have a room of people completely enthralled, completely engaged by your advertisement —even before they know what it’s for— is unique. At the end of the spot, when your name and logo hold the screen for those precious few seconds, that is important. At that moment, when the viewer realizes that your company went to all the trouble of filming such a huge and costly advertisement for your pleasure without jamming products down your throat violently for the entire duration… you have them inspired. Its thoughtfulness breeds respect for your brand, and that is clearly what Honda US execs are missing. They just don’t get it.