My number one candidate for Rob’s TV advert of the Year Award 2003 until recently was the Honda “isn’t it nice when things just work” masterpiece. The full two minute version is a joy to watch. What makes it work so well is that this isn’t just a random contraption, but each element highlights a feature of the car: the automatic windscreen wipers; the spring loading of a handle; the remote controlled boot closing.
I was convinced it was computer generated because of the part of the sequence in which three tyres roll up a slope. I didn’t believe the story that it took over six hundred takes in a studio to get right (despite this being stated on the Honda web site). However, while searching around for evidence to back up my opinion I found a Snopes article that verified the story and explained the apparent mockery of physical laws:
The sequence where the tyres roll up a slope looks particularly impressive but is very simple. Steiner [head of television at Wieden & Kennedy, the agency responsible for the advert] says that there is a weight [in each] tyre and when the tyre is knocked, the weight is displaced and in an attempt to rebalance itself, the tyre rolls up the slope.
Knowing that the contraption had to be painstakingly assembled out of real car parts makes the advert even more impressive.
It has, however, been displaced from the number one spot, because last night at the cinema I saw the 118 118 spoof. “Isn’t it nice when things just work?” becomes, “Isn’t nice when a directory enquires service just works, 118?” “It is, 118. Very nice indeed.”
This is no rough and ready parody; references to the original abound: From the rotating lollipop in place of the rotating windscreen wipers, to the music, to the squirty water bottle in the face in place of the windscreen washer water. By paying tribute in this way it inherits everything that was good about the Honda ad, with the added bonus that it’s hilarious. No doubt both companies will benefit from the mutual publicity of such a crossover. 118 118 may not be the cheapest directory enquiries service, but their advertising agency deserves every penny!