Autoblog

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]

Click above to view teaser videos after the jump

Honda's famous "Cog" commercial proved that the process of making something cool is often more interesting than the cool thing itself. The Japanese automaker is going to try and wow our socks off again with a new commercial coming in June for the launch of the redesigned European Honda Accord (the same vehicle launched in the original "Cog" commercial), and in advance of its debut will be airing four short teaser ads.

The teaser ads will document the process of Honda's endeavor, called "Difficult is Worth Doing" (it has its own blog), and chronicle five days of shooting at The Perris Skydive Centre in California. That's right, we know the final commercial will involve 45 of the world's best sky divers doing some of the most complicated aerial formations ever attempted, but that's about it.

The teaser ads are being aired unbranded, so viewers won't actually know that Honda's behind them or that they're meant to promote the new Honda Accord in Europe until the final commercial is unveiled. The first teaser reveals that it's all got something to do with building a teapot, so our guess is that these 45 skydivers will be creating a three-dimensional tea pot thousands of feet in the air while plummeting towards Earth at 120 mph. We'll have to wait until June to see if we're right, but until then you can check out all three teasers, including three that haven't aired on television yet, and the original "Cog" commercial after the jump.

[Source: Honda]

click above to view more spy shots of Europe's 2009 Honda Accord Tourer

In case you didn't know, the Acura TSX sold in the U.S. is basically the same car as the European version of the Honda Accord. So when we see spy shots of the old country's new Accord, we're interested because we're looking at the next TSX for us. This image was sent into us by Autoblog reader bojan with not much information, but it's clear that we're looking at the 2009 Honda Accord Tourer (wagon) for Europe. The car's shape is based on the Accord Tourer Concept that was shown by the automaker at the Frankfurt Motor Show last September. Since there's virtually no covering, we can make all those bits that Honda showed use in a series of teaser images it released late last month. It's shaping up to be one extremely sharp wagon, which we'll get to see in person next month at the Geneva Motor Show. Even though we'll get the sedan version of this car over here in the States as the next Acura TSX, the tourer model will likely remain beyond our reach and not offered in the U.S.