Car-Vid Classics: Honda’s cog advertisement
Seven months and 100 takes later, car advertising becomes an art form
We’re shifting gears with the Car-Vid Classic this week — while the last few have been all about legendary driving, this one is an absolute classic advert, namely Honda UK’s iconic Cog commercial from 2003.
The concept is very simple — a Rube Goldberg-style contraption consisting of parts from a Honda Accord all coming together in a display of spectacular precision; starting with a transmission bearing rolling into a synchro hub, which rolls into a gear wheel cog, which plummets off a table on to a camshaft . . . various car parts coming together with effortless ease and incredible precision for 120 seconds.
But the execution is simply epic, with no visual effects used (even the tyres rolling up a gentle slope was done by attaching weights at the top, enough for the tyres to roll gently when touched) and the whole twominute run only featuring a single invisible cut (apparently in the spot where the muffler rolls across the floor) to splice two separate 60-second dolly shots together.
The sparse, almost hypnotic precision of the video belies the painstaking preparation that went into its filming, which took place over a seven-month production period and a cost of £1 million (around NZ$3 million in today’s money).
The production team, which was made up of engineers, special effects technicians, car designers and even a sculptor, spent a month working with parts from a disassembled Honda Accord, and between testing and filming it took more than 100 takes to get the two shots required.
Cog was first aired on British television on Sunday, April 6, 2003 where it filled an entire commercial break during the Brazilian Grand Prix on ITV. It received widespread media attention and drove massive amounts of traffic to Honda’s website.
It would go on to be one of the most awarded advertising campaigns ever, rack up more than eightmillion views on YouTube (even though the platform launched two years after Cog was released) and is credited with generating more than £400 million ($763m) in revenue for Honda.
And, of course, it is still a massively satisfying piece of film to watch.