When your products last forever, the only thing that breaks is your customer’s will to buy new stuff. Honda’s new spot from Howatson+Company embraces that curse or milks it for comedy, depending on your view.
In an elegant inversion of the usual built-to-last cliché, ordinary Australians are cursing machines that stubbornly won’t quit. Not the faulty ones, mind you. A leaf blower that roars back to life after years in the shed, a lawnmower that refuses to retire? Ad Nut has seen acorns with shorter lifespans.
Honestly, humans deserve Ad Nut's sympathy. Buying something new is one of the last remaining thrills of adulthood. A fresh mower, a shiny leaf blower… the tiny jolts of serotonin. Yet Honda has been denying them that dopamine hit for generations.
“We wanted to have some fun with a very serious product truth. Our customers know Honda products go the distance, so we’re taking that fact and turning it into something distinctively memorable," added Eva Barrett, general manager of brand, marketing, and customer experience at Honda.
The campaign spans TVC, online, OOH, digital, and in-store. The copy has a lovely restraint. The humour is bone-dry, self-aware and wraps up before it stretches. Subtle like a wink than a sales pitch, if you know what Ad Nut means? The final scene, when the neighbour proudly flashes his brand-new Honda mower, unaware he has essentially bought a machine with the lifespan of a cursed heirloom, is the kind of dark comedy Ad Nut treasures. The poor thing will be mowing well into the afterlife.
Ad Nut's verdict: Built to last. Even the joke.
CREDITS
Honda
General Manager Brand, Marketing, CX: Eva Barrett
Creative Manager: Glenn Gibbins
Marketing Manager: Ben Familton
Digital Marketing Lead: Ruby Murphy
Marketing Campaign Specialist: Deana Bazzanella
Howatson+Company Creative
Deputy Chief Creative Officer: Richard Shaw
Senior Art Director: Dan Smith
Senior Copywriter: Ernie Ciaschetti
Senior Designer: Gabriella Dudman
Studio Lead: Simon Merrifield
Production
Production Company: Rabbit
Director: Aimee-Lee Xu Hsien
Executive Producer; Lucas Jenner
Executive Producer: Alex Hay
Producer: Morgan Hind
DOP: Alex Serafini
 Ad Nut is a surprisingly literate woodland creature that for unknown reasons has an unhealthy obsession with advertising. Ad Nut gathers ads from all over Asia and the world for your viewing pleasure, because Ad Nut loves you. You can also check out Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame, or read about Ad Nut's strange obsession with 'murderous beasts'. |
