14/04/2003 - Entry #79
S_O mentioned a while ago that I haven't done an entry about adverts for a while. It's true, I haven't, but that's mainly because there haven't been all that many good adverts around lately. There've been a few half-decent ones, like the Nike freestyling efforts, but nothing exceptionally noteworthy. The only one that I've seen lately which is worth mentioning, is the new advert for the Honda Accord. I'm not a huge fan of the new Honda marketing campaign, mostly because of that dreadful 'OK Factory' advert, and a couple of mediocre others, with an irritating voice-over from Garrison Keiler. The ads were all designed by the trendy powerhouse agency Wieden & Kennedy, who've been responsible for almost all of Nike's commercials (including the aforementioned freestyling ads, as well as the famous if overrated 'Good Vs. Evil' football ad), as well as all the recent 'How Are You?' Vodafone ads featuring the likes of David Beckham and Michael Schumacher. Oh, and also those Microsoft "Where do you want to go today?" ads of yore. They're not a bad company, all things considered. A bit big for my liking, but it'd be difficult to argue that they didn't single-handedly reinvent advertising in the 80s, and they HAVE managed to keep their adverts fairly alternative for over 20 years, so I guess I'll let them of (phew, close call!). But yeah, anyway, it's a really, really good advert, I must say. The more I watch it, the better it is. For those who haven't seen it, you can download it here. Even if you have seen it, it's worth downloading, because it really is a nice little video. Entitled 'Cog', it features 85 individual parts of a Honda Accord to create an elaborate domino effect - a complex game of eponymous cog nudging cog. You may or may not remember me stating that one of my all time favourite adverts was for the Peugeot 307 SW. One of the things I liked about it was that it packed so much information into such little time, without ever saying a single word. It kicked off with a gliding camera shot across an impossibly sleek and smooth surface. As the music ('Breathe', by Telepopmusik) begins we realise it's the bonnet of a car, and the camera continues to lazily drift around the front, so close that every little detail fills the screen. Everything looks beautifully crisp and clean up close, and it really flaunts the craftsmanship. The camera flits its way round to the back, and zooms out just enough for the Peugeot logo to be displayed, before the chorus kicks in and we zip forward through the window into the interior. That logo is the first piece of information we've actually heard or seen, and it's also all we're going to get. Clearly feeling that we've seen just about enough of the car, the ad then begins its 'message', as it were. From inside, the camera remains in a fixed spot but rotates around to look at the outside world, and lo and behold, everything looks different from within this car. Trees glide past and butterflies frolic through the air. The sun is shining and a couple of droplets of water splash off the immaculate sunroof in another spot of subtle, almost subliminal information. The camera swims back outside and shows the car in full for the first time and pans round it as a female voice finally announces "See the world in a different light..." and gives us its name at last. The whole advert lasts just 37 seconds, and remains one of my favourite understated commercials. The Honda Accord advert lasts a much longer two minutes and one second, taking up the entire ad-break when it was first shown during the Brazilian Grand Prix, but it still sticks to a very similar style to the Peugeot offering. Like the 307 advert, it's all shot in one take, with the camera slowly drifting along with the action. Like the 307 advert, there's just one spoken line in the entire clip, and it arrives right at the end. And like the 307 advert, it still manages to pack in a surprising amount of information about the car. In one section some tyres roll and tug a piece of wire, which folds up a back seat, showcasing the way it can compact itself for extra storage room. In another, the cleaning spray is triggered, jetting water onto a windscreen lying nearby, setting off the moisture-activated windscreen wipers. The combination of information and sheer aesthetic is incredibly well done.
However, the most notable thing about the advert is, in a way, its lack of originality. The entire commercial bears a striking resemblance to a 1987 film by Peter Fischli and David Weiss, entitled "The Way Things Go." The film is just one mind-boggingly complex 30 minute chain reaction of household objects in an intricate domino sequence, utilising a dizzying array of techniques to continue the movement, from fire to chemical reactions. It is, essentially, a half hour long version of the Honda advert but with different objects and a lot more creativity. It was shown late at night on BBC 2 a few years ago, and I fell in love with it right then. It was released not long ago on DVD, and I fully intend to get it. I might even put it on the essentials list, just to piss you all off. Fischli and Weiss were artists, and it definitely shows in the film. It's the kind of video I'd expect to be a contender for an art prize. I expect the overall concept was one of probability and the nature of chaos theory versus 'destiny' and suchlike, but I'll have to let you know once I've watched it again. It really is surprisingly fun to watch, too, with bags of humour and poetic value throughout. In fact, you can watch the opening minute and a half of it over here. Scroll down to 'The Way Things Go' and click on the Trailer button. I'm sure you'll be able to spot the obvious similarities between the two videos. Whether it's a tribute (a homage, if you will) to Fischli and Weiss' work, I couldn't tell you. Perhaps it's just a shameless rip-off. Perhaps they're trying to update and couple it with studio quality sound and lighting, as opposed to the unrefined 'factory quality' of the original. I really don't know. There's no official word on it, as far as I know. Either way, Cog is a good advert, and The Way Things Go is an even better artistic film. And at least they gave me something to talk about.
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