Over the last few decades, Honda has given us such timeless ads as the ‘Cog’ Rube Goldberg ad and the animated ‘The Power of Dreams’ ad. Now the Japanese manufacturer of everything from jetboat engines to small aircraft is back with a stop-motion ad to commemorate its 70th anniversary.
Called “Paper” the ad was created for Honda by stop-motion artist PES, real name Adam Pesapane. An accomplished director, PES is an Academy Award-winning animator whose first film—about two chairs humping each other—won animation’s version of the Oscars in 2002. Since then, PES has found a lot of success in commercial work, as well as a number of surreal and whimsical animated shorts.
It starts with an early Honda engine, and bicycle, which Honda built in its early days. It then morphs into a series of road, then racing, motorcycles, culminating with a poster celebrating Honda’s Isle of Man TT wins from 1961 to 1967. We’d be more than happy to have that poster on our wall.
It then showcases a late-model motorcycle, an outboard marine engine, and then the chronology of its road cars. Following a run-in with an oversized octopus, the engine shown is the 1965 1.5-liter engine used for Formula 1, and then shows the evolution of Honda open wheel racing, ending with the new Honda-engined McLaren F1 car.
To produce each take, designers held pieces of paper up to the camera. “A lot of the drawings that you see in the film — especially in the second half of the spot — can only be seen by one particular angle by a camera,” PES says in a video about how the ad was made. And, he adds, “the engine goes from one vehicle to the next” to show how the brand’s models have changed over time.
The spot will get further full two-minute airings on network shows including Dancing with the Stars, Rosewood, Minority Report and Blue Bloods, and on ESPN next weekend during Saturday College Football. A 60-second version will air throughout October on NBC, CBS, Fox and ABC. It’s also on Facebook and YouTube.
Check out the behind-the-scenes video as well, including commentary from PES himself.
