(note: Flash6 is required)

About this page

The original page is located here: http://www.honda.co.uk/newcars/accord100k.html.

I simply copied a larger version of the ad (located here: http://www.honda.co.uk/newcars/accord300k.html) and placed on my webserver. This was only done because download rates from honda.co.uk were getting to be very poor and I wanted to send people to a rather quick download.

So a note to all you Honda lawyers, I'm not taking credit for this. This ad is clearly your work. Don't shoot. Please.

Yes, everything in the ad did happen as shown. There was no computer generation involved.
Want to know how it was done? Read these articles for more info:Daily Telegraph and Daily Record, both British news organizations.
Update 4/29/2003: Another news article has been posted about this ad. See the The Oregonian for this third news item.
Update 4/30/2003: Thanks to another alert viewer for a link to an article on Salon.com.
Update 5/5/2003: More articles. http://www.autonews.com/article.cms?articleId=43452, http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=396534, http://www.carpages.co.uk/honda/honda_launches_stylish_new_accord_06_04_03.asp.
Update 5/7/2003: http://www.autonews.com/article.cms?articleId=43452

Additional Information

This ad is most definitely a nod to the filmmakers Peter Fischli and David Weiss. Their 1987 film, "The Way Things Go" (aka "Der Lauf Der Dinge") is a 30-minute-long showing of a contraption they built out of household items. (More information about the film here. To purchase the film go here.)

Update/FAQ

  • Yes, I know who Rube Goldberg is and yes, I know his influences on the above mentioned filmakers. Thank you. :)
  • Can't view the flash file? Try the Quicktime Version
  • The music at the end is most likely "Rappers Delight" by The Sugar Hill Gang
  • Because so many people are infected with the Klez virus and don't know it, I've been getting over 20 megabytes of emails a day. Each Klez-virus email is 127K or larger. I really wish people would scan their systems and stop using crappy unpatched Microsoft Products. More info on Klez and how you can scan your computer is here: http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/[email protected]. If you want to make sure you have the latest patches from Microsoft, visit: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/

    Very important that you understand: There are no computer graphics
    or
    digital tricks in the film. Everything you see really happened in
    real
    time exactly as you see it.

    The film took 606 takes. On the first 605 takes, something,
    usually
    very minor, didn't work. They would then have to set the whole
    thing up
    again. The crew spent weeks shooting night and day. By the time it
    was
    over, they were ready to change professions.

    The film cost six million dollars and took three months to
    complete
    including a full engineering crew designing the sequence. In
    addition,
    it's two minutes long so every time Honda airs the film on
    British
    television, they're shelling out enough dough to keep any one of
    us in
    clover for a lifetime. However, it is fast becoming the most
    downloaded
    advertisement in Internet history. Honda executives figure the ad!
    will
    soon pay for itself simply in "free" viewings (Honda i sn't paying
    a
    dime to have you watch this commercial!).

    When the ad was shown to Honda executives, they liked it and
    commented
    on how amazing computer graphics have gotten. They fell off their
    chairs
    when they found out it was for real. When the ad was pitched to
    senior
    executives, they signed off on it immediately without any
    hesitation --
    including the costs.

    There are six and only six hand-made Accords in the world. To
    the
    horror of Honda engineers, the filmmakers disassembled two ! of
    them to
    make the film. Everything you see in the film (aside from the
    walls,
    floor, ramp, and complete Honda Accord) are parts from those two
    cars.

    The voiceover is Garrison Keillor.

    Oh. And about those funky windshield wipers. On the new Accords,
    the
    windshield wipers have water sensors and are designed to start
    doing
    their thing automatically as soon as they become wet. It looks a
    bit
    weird in the commercial.

    As amazing as this is, it's actually based on an earlier film from
    the
    seventies called "How Things Move" by two Swiss self-destructing
    artifacts artists (say that ten times fast). In that film, a
    similar
    set-up with household objects goes on for thirty (thirty >
    three-zero!)
    minutes with air jets and fire and chemical reactions.

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