Filed under: Marketing/Advertising, Honda
Honda airs live TV commercial for new Accord

Click above to view commercial after the jump
We told you earlier in the week that this particular commercial would be the successor to Honda's famous "Cog" commercial. Dozens of world-class sky divers have been practicing for the commercial in California, and yesterday they pulled of a portion of it live on camera high above Spain. What did they do exactly? Five separate aerial formations were formed to spell out the word "H-O-N-D-A" in sequence. Back in the early years of television, commercials were done live all the time, but those were shot in a studio, not 40,000 feet above the earth's surface.
In light of Honda's belief that the process of doing something difficult is often more interesting than the end result, the live commercial that aired isn't the final product at all. The actual final commercial using footage from this jump and probably others will air sometime in June. We'll see then if it's as good as "Cog". Check them both out after the jump. Thanks for the tip, everyone!
[Source: YouTube]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
why not the LS2LS7? 12:07PM (5/30/2008)
That's pretty dumb. The thing that makes this spectacular is that there is a little bit of text in the corner stating it is live?
If you're going to make something amazing, make it grab you and force you to understand why it is amazing, instead of giving out cheat sheets to explain why you should have been more impressed.
Cog did this. So I thought Honda would understand it.
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Craig 12:14PM (5/30/2008)
It's kinda boring and expected. I was hoping something a bit more visually interesting than letters.
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Mobius_1 12:23PM (5/30/2008)
Yep, that was worth doing, awesome
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tankd0g 12:26PM (5/30/2008)
Big deal. Maybe if you told me they did it without parachutes or something...
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BLS 12:41PM (5/30/2008)
"Yeaaaaa! Whoo, nice job."
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lad 1:06PM (5/30/2008)
I think if one realized how difficult it is to control your movements in free fall, especially using a group of people without colliding, one could appreciate it more.
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SOhp101 2:15PM (5/30/2008)
I have to say that seeing them do it almost effortlessly does make it quite impressive. Good to know that this isn't the entire commercial though.
Phil L. 1:33PM (5/30/2008)
Let's see it again. Lamborghini this time...
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Mobius_1 10:20PM (5/30/2008)
they should try to actually promote a product, and yes, I would like to see them try to spell "Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 Roadster"
Seoultrain 1:38PM (5/30/2008)
I thought the dispersion at the end was pretty cool. They should've dispersed and converged for each letter (if they really wanted to keep with the H-O-N-D-A thing). Yeah, that's probably 10x harder, but these guys are professionals, aren't they?
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porschedevotee 6:21PM (5/30/2008)
I bet it would have added too much time. They'd end up with:
H
(drift apart)
O
(drift apart)
N
(drift apart)
D
... "Oh crap! GROUND!!"
BMWdownshift 2:47PM (5/30/2008)
I'm selling all 3 Bimmers and buying hondas after that.
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Joshua 3:27PM (5/30/2008)
neat, but not cog-worthy.
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AmericanTruckGuy 4:23PM (5/30/2008)
I like Honda and all, but I think they could have saved their money and spent it on something a bit more productive.
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Russell 4:49PM (5/30/2008)
wow. I got nervous as I watched... bringing my memory was of how it was like when I sky dived.
Great job!!!
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Thameth 5:12PM (5/30/2008)
The Article is wrong, the jumped from 14,000ft not 40!
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Big Al 6:11PM (5/30/2008)
Needless to say, cog was much more interesting....
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rouse42 10:50PM (5/30/2008)
thats not the one we've been waiting for.
its this one here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmePHwX_2-k&eurl=http://difficultisworthdoing.typepad.com/
http://difficultisworthdoing.typepad.com
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Karl 1:38AM (5/31/2008)
That's better!
Here's how my thought process was: Oh, this is kinda cool.
Oh, just doing that?
Oh, whoa, that's kinda cool.
(then the parachute part was just awesome, best part) OH YES!
I don't like the ending though. Like I said. Parachute part made it worth the time. Precision.
John Graham 1:11PM (6/01/2008)
Thats amazing!!