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Cog (television commercial)
Encyclopedia
"Cog" is a British television and cinema advertisement
launched by Honda
in 2003 to promote the seventh-generation
Accord
line of cars. It follows a chain of colliding parts
taken from a disassembled Accord. Wieden+Kennedy
developed a GB£6 million marketing campaign around "Cog" and its partner pieces, "Sense" and "Everyday", broadcast later in the year. The piece itself was produced on a budget of £1 million by Partizan Midi-Minuit
. Antoine Bardou-Jacquet directed the seven-month production
, contracting The Mill
to handle post-production
. The 120-second final cut of "Cog" was broadcast on British television on 6 April 2003, during a commercial break in ITV
's coverage of the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix
.
The campaign was very successful both critically and financially. Honda's UK domain
saw more web traffic
in the 24 hours after "Cog"'s television début than all but one UK automotive brand received during that entire month. The branded content attached to "Cog" through interactive television
was accessed by over 250,000 people, and 10,000 people followed up with a request for a brochure
for the Honda Accord or a DVD
copy of the advertisement. The media reaction to the advertisement was equally effusive; The Independent
s Peter York described it as creating "the water-cooler ad conversation of the year", while Quentin Letts
of The Daily Telegraph
believed it was "certain to become an advertising legend".
The high cost of 120-second slots in televised commercial breaks meant that the full version of "Cog" was broadcast only a handful of times, and only in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Sweden. Despite its limited run, it is regarded as one of the most groundbreaking and influential commercials of the 2000s, and received more awards from the television and advertising industries than any commercial in history. Its success was blighted, however, by persistent accusations of plagiarism by Peter Fischli and David Weiss
, the creators of The Way Things Go
(1987).
on a transmission
bearing
rolling down a board into a synchro hub. The hub in turn rolls into a gear wheel cog, which falls off of the board and into a camshaft
and pulley wheel
. The camera tracks
slowly from left to right, following the domino chain of reactions across an otherwise empty gallery space. The complexity of the interactions increases as the commercial progresses, growing from simple collisions to ziplines made from a bonnet release cable, scales and see-saws constructed from multiple carefully balanced parts, and a swinging mobile
of suspended glass windows. Later sequences begin to make use of the Accord's electronic systems; the automated water sensors attached to the windscreen are used to make wiper blades start crawling across the floor.
The earlier sections of "Cog" take place in complete silence, the only sounds coming from the collisions of the pieces themselves. This is broken with the activation of the CD player from the Accord, which begins playing The Sugarhill Gang
's 1979 single "Rapper's Delight
". The sequence ends when the button of an electronic key fob is pressed, closing the hatchback
of a fully assembled Honda Accord on a carefully balanced trailer. The car rolls in front of a tonneau cover
bearing the "Accord" marque, while narrator Garrison Keillor
asks "Isn't it nice when things just work?". The screen fades to white and the piece closes on the Honda logo and the brand's motto, "The Power of Dreams".
Sales of Honda products within Europe had been in decline since 1998, and the company's position as the number two Japan
ese automotive company
, behind Toyota, had been taken by Nissan
. European consumers perceived the brand as staid, uninspiring, and the cars to be of lesser quality than those produced by European manufacturers. In one survey, one quarter of respondents "wouldn't dream of buying a Honda as their next car". It was in this climate in 2001 that Wieden+Kennedy
proposed to Honda a new advertising strategy based on the company's Japanese motto, "Yume No Chikara" ("Power of Dreams"). The stated goal of the campaign was to increase Honda's share of the UK market to five percent within three years and to change the public image of the brand from "dull but functional" to "warm and consumer-friendly", all on a lower marketing budget than their predecessors had demanded.
The first series of promotions in the United Kingdom adopted the strapline
"What if...?", and explored various "dream-like" scenarios. The first television campaign explicitly introduced the premise of the campaign by asking what would happen if the world's favourite word (Okay
) was replaced with "What if?". The next few pieces of the campaign, "Pecking Order", "Seats", and "Bus Lane" for television and "Doodle", "Big Grin", and "Oblonger" for radio, became progressively more surreal, and featured oddities ranging from a traffic cone draped in leopard fur to trees growing traffic lights from their branches. In 2002, Matt Gooden, a creative director
, and Ben Walker, a copywriter
, proposed a new television and cinema advertisement to promote the seventh-generation
Honda Accord
line that had recently been rolled out in Europe and Japan. The advertisement, based around a complex chain reaction of moving parts from the Accord itself, was approved and given the working title "Cog".
-holding one-second advertisement produced for Leo Burnett Worldwide
, and a depression-awareness booklet for the Charlie Walker Memorial Trust. The pair approached Honda with a rough, low-budget 30-second trial film inspired by the children's board game Mouse Trap
, Caractacus Potts
' breakfast-making machine in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
, and a 1987 Swiss art film
by Peter Fischli and David Weiss
, Der Lauf der Dinge (The Way Things Go
).
The Honda executives were intrigued, but demanded a cut using actual automotive parts before giving permission to go ahead with the full-scale project. "Cog" was approved with a budget of £1 million, and Gooden & Walker recruited a London-based team to go through the logistics of the shoot in detail. The team, which comprised engineers, special effect
s technicians, car designers, and even a sculptor, spent a month working with parts from a disassembled Honda Accord before the design for the advertisement's set
was even finalised. Approval for the script took another month. Honda insisted that several specific Accord features, such as a door with a wing-mirror indicator and a rain-sensitive windscreen, appear in the final cut. The company planned to highlight these features in sales brochures. Antoine Bardou-Jacquet was hired to direct the piece. Bardou-Jacquet was mostly known for directing several award-winning music video
s, including Alex Gopher's "The Child", Playgroup
's "Number One", and Air's "How Does It Make You Feel".
as possible, believing that the final product would be that much more appealing to its audience. To this end, he set two months aside for the creation of hundreds of conceptual drawings detailing various possible interactions between the parts, and a further four months for practical testing and development. For the testing phase, the script was broken into small segments, each comprising only one or two interactions. Ideas deemed unworkable by the testing crew, such as airbag
explosions and collisions between front and rear sections of the car, were abandoned, and the remaining segments were slowly brought together until the full and final sequence was developed.
The final cut of "Cog" consists of two continuous sixty-second dolly shots
taken from a technocrane
, stitched together later in post-production
. (The stitching appears during the moment when the muffler rolls across the floor.) Four days of filming were required to get these two shots, two days for each minute-long section. Filming sessions lasted seven hours and the work was exacting, as some parts needed to be positioned with an accuracy of a sixteenth of an inch. Despite the detailed instructions derived from the testing period, small variations in ambient temperature, humidity and settling dust continually threw off the movement of the parts enough to end the sequence early. It took 90 minutes on the first day just to get the initial transmission bearing to roll correctly into the second. Between testing and filming, around 600 take
s were needed to capture the final cut. The team commandeered two of Honda's six hand-assembled Accords—one to roll off the trailer at the end of the advertisement, the other to be stripped for parts. While several sections of the early scripts had to be abandoned due to the total unavailability of certain Accord components, by the time production finished the accumulated spare parts filled two articulated
lorries
.
editing tool (real name, Andrew Wood), from The Mill
, spent a lot of time on set during filming, where he advised the film crew on whether particular sections could be accomplished more easily by re-filming or by manipulating the image afterwards. Even so, the constant movement of the components on-camera made it difficult to achieve a seamless transition between the two 60-second shots. Several sections also required minor video editing, such as re-centering the frame to stay closer to the action, removal of wires, highlighting a spray of water, and adjusting the pace for dramatic purposes.
's coverage of the Brazilian Grand Prix
. The release was widely remarked upon by the media, with articles appearing in both broadsheets such as The Daily Telegraph
, The Independent
, and The Guardian
, and tabloid papers such as The Sun and The Daily Mirror
. The day after "Cog"'s debut, the Honda website received more hits than at any time in its history, and overnight became the second most-popular automotive website in the UK.
The full 120-second version of the advertisement aired only 10 times in all, and only in the 10 days after the initial screening. The slots were chosen for maximum impact, mostly in high-profile sporting events such as the UEFA Champion's League football match between Manchester United
and Real Madrid
. The full version was then put aside in favour of a 60-second and five 30-second variations, which continued to air for a further six weeks. These shortened versions made use of newly introduced interactive options
on the Sky Digital
television network
. Viewers were encouraged to press a button on their remote control, bringing up a menu that allowed the viewer to see the full 120-second version of the advertisement. Other menu options included placing an order for a free documentary DVD and a brochure for the Honda Accord. The DVD, which was also included as an insert in 1.2 million newspapers in the first week of the commercial's rollout, contained a "making-of" documentary featuring interviews and behind-the-scenes
footage of the production process, a virtual tour of the Accord, the original music video
to "Rapper's Delight
" by the Sugarhill Gang
, and an illustrated guide to all the parts shown in "Cog". The interactive 30-second versions of "Cog" proved hugely successful. Over 250,000 people used the menu option, spending an average of two and a half minutes in the dedicated advertising area. A significant number watched the looped 120-second version for up to ten minutes. Of those who opened the menu, 10,000 requested either a DVD or a brochure, and Honda used the data collected from the interactive option to arrange a number of test drive
s.
Expansion of the "Cog" campaign to a worldwide market was fraught with a number of logistical difficulties. The cost of airing a 120-second commercial proved prohibitive in most markets. Combined with Honda's use of different advertising agencies in different regions and the relative autonomy of its various business unit
s in marketing decisions, meant that "Cog" screened in only a few selected markets: the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Australia, and in cinemas in only a handful of other countries. For most markets, including the United States
, the only way for audiences to see the piece was via the Internet, or in one of a handful of unsolicited and unpaid broadcasts on news channel review programmes. Traffic to Honda websites quadrupled; in the first few weeks, "Cog" was downloaded by over a million people. By mid-May, the number was twice that. It has been estimated that more people in the United States voluntarily chose to watch "Cog" than any other Honda commercial.
In financial terms, "Cog" was an unprecedented success for Honda. The £32,000 spent on placements on the BSkyB network alone achieved a greater response than a previous £1 million direct mailing campaign. Sales of Honda vehicles in the United Kingdom jumped by 28 percent, despite lower marketing and public relations spending by the company and an increase in prices relative to their competitors. Visits to Honda dealerships rose from an average of 3,500 to 3,700 per month, with 22 percent of these resulting in the purchase of a Honda, compared to 19 percent before the campaign. In all, "Cog" has been credited with increasing Honda's revenue by nearly £400m.
, creators of the 1987 art film Der Lauf der Dinge
. The film was well known in the advertising industry, and its creators had been approached several times with offers for the right to use the concept, but had always declined. The letter pointed out several similarities between their work and "Cog", and warned the agency that they were considering legal action on the basis of the "commercialisation and simplification of the film's content and the false impression that [they] might have endorsed the use". When interviewed by Creative Review magazine, the pair made clear that they wished they had been consulted on the advertisement, and that they would not have given permission if asked. Media publications quickly picked up the story, and asserted that Fishcli and Weiss were already in the process of litigation against the car manufacturer.
Comparisons were made between the case and that of Mehdi Norowzian
, a British director who complained about Diageo
's, the drinks conglomerate, for allegedly plagiarising his work in their 1994 Anticipation campaign for Guinness
-brand stout
. The matter was complicated by the fact that Wieden+Kennedy acknowledged that the film had served as an "inspiration" for "Cog", and had distributed copies of the work to its script-writers. Ultimately, Fischli and Weiss never filed a lawsuit against either Wieden+Kennedy or Honda UK, but their accusations continue to colour perceptions of the work within the advertising community.
Despite the lingering shadow of these accusations, "Cog" drew an unprecedented amount of critical acclaim. It received more awards than any commercial in history; so many that it was both the most-awarded commercial of 2004 and the 33rd-most-awarded commercial of 2003. The jury for the British Television Advertising Awards gave the piece the highest score of any commercial ever recorded; the jury's chairman Charles Inge commented: "My own opinion is that this is the best commercial that I have seen for at least ten years." After awarding "Cog" with several Silver awards, the president-elect of the D&AD Awards, Dick Powell, said of the piece: "It delights and entrances, [...] it communicates engineering quality and quality of thinking, and leaves you with a smile."
Having swept the majority of award ceremonies within the advertising community to date, "Cog" was widely believed to be the favourite for the industry's top award, the Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
. Its chief competition was thought to be "Sheet Metal" for Saturn automobiles. "Cog" held a disadvantage in that the chairman of the Cannes voting jury, Dan Wieden
, was one of the founders of Wieden+Kennedy, the firm responsible for creating "Cog"; tradition holds that it is bad form for the chairman of the jury to vote for a piece by his or her own agency.
The result at Cannes was a surprise; after the longest judging period in the festival's history, the Grand Prix went to neither of the two event favourites. Instead, the jury awarded the prize to "Lamp
", a U.S. advertisement directed by Spike Jonze
for the IKEA
chain of furniture stores. Voted second was a British ad, "Ear Tennis" for the Xbox
video game console
. Chief among speculated reasons for the outcome was the plagiarism debate surrounding "Cog". Ben Walker told Adweek
"A couple of people on the jury told me the reason it didn't win is 'cause they didn't want to be seen to be awarding something which people in some corners had said we copied."
directory assistance
service in the summer of 2003, in which the Honda parts are replaced with such oddities as a tractor wheel, a flamingo and a space hopper, with impetus provided by two moustachioed runners. Just Works was created by advertising agency WCRS. It was written by Anson Harris and directed by JJ Keith, whose previous work included spots for BT Cellnet, Heinz
, and Guinness
, and the Oscar-nominated short film Holiday Romance. Honda refused to give WCRS permission to copy their advert, which, under BACC
guidelines, prevented either the 60- or 90-second Just Works spots from appearing on British television. Instead, the ad was shown online and promoted virally
. Just Works went on to win a number of awards in its own right, including Golds in several categories at the British Television Advertising Awards and the Creative Circle Awards, a Silver Lion from the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, and a Bronze award from The One Show
.
In 2004, BBC Radio Manchester
asked for and received permission from Wieden+Kennedy to produce a television advertisement in the style of "Cog" to advertise coverage of football events by local radio stations. The ad, which was directed by Reg Sanders and produced by Tracy Williams, shows pieces of sports equipment such as footballs and team shirts knocking into each other in sequence. In all, 65 versions were broadcast, each tailored to advertise the local BBC Radio station. Wieden+Kennedy were pleased to gain the extra publicity and Neil Christie, managing director of Wieden+Kennedy London, commented: "We are very happy that every time the BBC runs one of their adverts, the person who watches it thinks of Honda."
Campaign magazine listed "Cog", along with Balls for the Sony BRAVIA
line of high-definition television
s, as one of the most-imitated commercials in recent times. Among the pieces believed to draw inspiration from "Cog" are a 2003 piece for breakfast cereal
Sugar Puffs
, Nearness for the Oslo School of Architecture and Design
, a 30-second animated advertisement for Heinz Tomato Ketchup
, an advertisement for BBC Radio Merseyside
football coverage, and the 2007 Tipping Point, advertising Guinness stout. When asked about the similarities between "Cog" and "Tipping Point", Paul Brazier, executive creative director at the advertising agency behind Tipping Point, replied: "I knew the ad was similar in places, but as an executive creative director, you have to look at things like that and make a decision. The fact the TV ad was only part of a huge internet campaign meant that I thought it wasn’t that near "Cog"."
-toppling world record attempt by Robin Weijers, and a three-minute introductory trailer to the BBC show Bang Goes the Theory
. In 2004, the United States Coast Guard
Training Centre in California
requested permission to use the ad in their training regime as a demonstration of the importance of attention to detail. Discussion of "Cog" as an example of the confluence of art and advertising, and as an example of inspiration versus plagiarism, has been ongoing. Mark Leckey
included "Cog" as part of his video art installation
"Cinema in the Round", in the Tate Britain
gallery, London, in 2008. It was also the focus of a panel discussion at the Tate Modern
during a retrospective of Fischli & Weiss' work there in 2006.
The next piece created by Wieden+Kennedy for Honda, Sense, advertised the company's "Integrated Motor System
" hybrid car
technology. Deliberate steps were taken to distance the spot from "Cog", using metaphor to make the promotion, rather than focusing on the technology itself. In 2005, Honda was once again in contention for the Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Film Festival, with the animated 60-second spot Grrr
. This time, it returned home triumphant, defeating Singing in the rain for the Volkswagen Golf
and Stella Artois
' Pilot to bring home the top prize. Antoine Bardou-Jacquet went on to direct two further Honda advertisements for Wieden+Kennedy. Choir, created with the help of fellow "Cog" team-members Ben Walker and Matt Gooden, was released in 2006, and Problem Playground in 2008.
Derivatives
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
launched by Honda
Honda
is a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...
in 2003 to promote the seventh-generation
Honda Accord (Japan and Europe seventh generation)
The seventh-generation Honda Accord for the European and Japanese markets was a mid-sized sedan and wagon, sold by Honda from 2002 to 2008.The European and JDM Accords were integrated on the previous Japanese Accord's chassis, but with a new body. No longer made in Swindon, those Accords are all...
Accord
Honda Accord
The Honda Accord is a series of compact, mid-size and full-size automobiles manufactured by Honda since 1976, and sold in a majority of automotive markets throughout the world....
line of cars. It follows a chain of colliding parts
Rube Goldberg machine
A Rube Goldberg machine, contraption, device, or apparatus is a deliberately over-engineered or overdone machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction...
taken from a disassembled Accord. Wieden+Kennedy
Wieden+Kennedy
Wieden+Kennedy is an independently owned American advertising agency best known for its work for Nike...
developed a GB£6 million marketing campaign around "Cog" and its partner pieces, "Sense" and "Everyday", broadcast later in the year. The piece itself was produced on a budget of £1 million by Partizan Midi-Minuit
Partizan Midi-Minuit
Partizan Midi-Minuit is a French company, which produced videos such as the multi-award winning Cog television advertisement for the Honda Accord, the 2004 ads for 7-Up, featuring Fido Dido, and music video for U2's Vertigo....
. Antoine Bardou-Jacquet directed the seven-month production
Filmmaking
Filmmaking is the process of making a film, from an initial story, idea, or commission, through scriptwriting, casting, shooting, directing, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a theatrical release or television program...
, contracting The Mill
The Mill (post-production)
The Mill is a post-production and visual effects company launched in 1990 with offices in London, New York and Los Angeles.The Mill's Film special effects subsidiary, Mill Film, won an Oscar for its work on the film Gladiator. The Mill was the first UK-based post-production company to set up...
to handle post-production
Post-production
Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art...
. The 120-second final cut of "Cog" was broadcast on British television on 6 April 2003, during a commercial break in ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
's coverage of the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix
2003 Brazilian Grand Prix
The 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on April 6, 2003 at Autódromo José Carlos Pace . This was the 700th World Championship event....
.
The campaign was very successful both critically and financially. Honda's UK domain
.uk
.uk is the Internet country code top-level domain for the United Kingdom. , it is the fourth most popular top-level domain worldwide , with over 9.5 million registrations....
saw more web traffic
Web traffic
Web traffic is the amount of data sent and received by visitors to a web site. It is a large portion of Internet traffic. This is determined by the number of visitors and the number of pages they visit...
in the 24 hours after "Cog"'s television début than all but one UK automotive brand received during that entire month. The branded content attached to "Cog" through interactive television
Interactive television
Interactive television describes a number of techniques that allow viewers to interact with television content as they view it.- Definitions :...
was accessed by over 250,000 people, and 10,000 people followed up with a request for a brochure
Brochure
A brochure is a type of leaflet. Brochures are most commonly found at places that tourists frequently visit, such as museums, major shops, and tourist information. Brochure racks or stands may suggest visits to amusement parks and other points of interest...
for the Honda Accord or a DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
copy of the advertisement. The media reaction to the advertisement was equally effusive; The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
s Peter York described it as creating "the water-cooler ad conversation of the year", while Quentin Letts
Quentin Letts
Quentin Richard Stephen Letts is a British journalist and theatre critic, writing for The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Oldie and New Statesman, and previously for The Times.- Early life :...
of The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
believed it was "certain to become an advertising legend".
The high cost of 120-second slots in televised commercial breaks meant that the full version of "Cog" was broadcast only a handful of times, and only in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Sweden. Despite its limited run, it is regarded as one of the most groundbreaking and influential commercials of the 2000s, and received more awards from the television and advertising industries than any commercial in history. Its success was blighted, however, by persistent accusations of plagiarism by Peter Fischli and David Weiss
Peter Fischli & David Weiss
Peter Fischli and David Weiss , often shortened to Fischli/Weiss, are an artist duo that have been collaborating since 1979. They are among the most renowned contemporary artists of Switzerland...
, the creators of The Way Things Go
The Way Things Go
The Way Things Go is a 1987 art film by the Swiss artist duo Peter Fischli and David Weiss. It documents a long causal chain assembled of everyday objects, resembling a Rube Goldberg machine....
(1987).
Sequence
"Cog" opens with a close-upClose-up
In filmmaking, television production, still photography and the comic strip medium a close-up tightly frames a person or an object. Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium shots and long shots . Close-ups display the most detail, but they do not include the broader scene...
on a transmission
Transmission (mechanics)
A machine consists of a power source and a power transmission system, which provides controlled application of the power. Merriam-Webster defines transmission as: an assembly of parts including the speed-changing gears and the propeller shaft by which the power is transmitted from an engine to a...
bearing
Bearing (mechanical)
A bearing is a device to allow constrained relative motion between two or more parts, typically rotation or linear movement. Bearings may be classified broadly according to the motions they allow and according to their principle of operation as well as by the directions of applied loads they can...
rolling down a board into a synchro hub. The hub in turn rolls into a gear wheel cog, which falls off of the board and into a camshaft
Camshaft
A camshaft is a shaft to which a cam is fastened or of which a cam forms an integral part.-History:An early cam was built into Hellenistic water-driven automata from the 3rd century BC. The camshaft was later described in Iraq by Al-Jazari in 1206. He employed it as part of his automata,...
and pulley wheel
Pulley
A pulley, also called a sheave or a drum, is a mechanism composed of a wheel on an axle or shaft that may have a groove between two flanges around its circumference. A rope, cable, belt, or chain usually runs over the wheel and inside the groove, if present...
. The camera tracks
Tracking shot
In motion picture terminology, a tracking shot is a segment in which the camera is mounted on a camera dolly, a wheeled platform that is pushed on rails while the picture is being taken...
slowly from left to right, following the domino chain of reactions across an otherwise empty gallery space. The complexity of the interactions increases as the commercial progresses, growing from simple collisions to ziplines made from a bonnet release cable, scales and see-saws constructed from multiple carefully balanced parts, and a swinging mobile
Mobile (sculpture)
A mobile is a type of kinetic sculpture constructed to take advantage of the principle of equilibrium. It consists of a number of rods, from which weighted objects or further rods hang. The objects hanging from the rods balance each other, so that the rods remain more or less horizontal...
of suspended glass windows. Later sequences begin to make use of the Accord's electronic systems; the automated water sensors attached to the windscreen are used to make wiper blades start crawling across the floor.
The earlier sections of "Cog" take place in complete silence, the only sounds coming from the collisions of the pieces themselves. This is broken with the activation of the CD player from the Accord, which begins playing The Sugarhill Gang
The Sugarhill Gang
The Sugarhill Gang is an American hip hop group, known mostly for their 1979 hit, "Rapper's Delight", the first hip hop single to become a Top 40 hit. The song uses the instrumental track from the classic hit "Good Times" by Chic as its foundation....
's 1979 single "Rapper's Delight
Rapper's Delight
"Rapper's Delight" is a 1979 single by American hip hop trio The Sugarhill Gang. While it was not the first single to feature rapping, it is generally considered to be the song that first popularized hip hop in the United States and around the world. The song's opening lyric "I said a hip hop, a...
". The sequence ends when the button of an electronic key fob is pressed, closing the hatchback
Hatchback
A Hatchback is a car body style incorporating a shared passenger and cargo volume, with rearmost accessibility via a rear third or fifth door, typically a top-hinged liftgate—and features such as fold-down rear seats to enable flexibility within the shared passenger/cargo volume. As a two-box...
of a fully assembled Honda Accord on a carefully balanced trailer. The car rolls in front of a tonneau cover
Tonneau
right|thumb|260px|1903 [[Ford Model A |Ford Model A]] rear-door TonneauTonneau cover , describes a hard or soft cover used to protect unoccupied passenger seats in a convertible, roadster, or for a pickup truck bed. Hard tonneau covers open by a hinging or folding mechanism while soft covers open...
bearing the "Accord" marque, while narrator Garrison Keillor
Garrison Keillor
Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...
asks "Isn't it nice when things just work?". The screen fades to white and the piece closes on the Honda logo and the brand's motto, "The Power of Dreams".
Background
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese automotive company
Automotive industry
The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells motor vehicles, and is one of the world's most important economic sectors by revenue....
, behind Toyota, had been taken by Nissan
Nissan Motors
, usually shortened to Nissan , is a multinational automaker headquartered in Japan. It was a core member of the Nissan Group, but has become more independent after its restructuring under Carlos Ghosn ....
. European consumers perceived the brand as staid, uninspiring, and the cars to be of lesser quality than those produced by European manufacturers. In one survey, one quarter of respondents "wouldn't dream of buying a Honda as their next car". It was in this climate in 2001 that Wieden+Kennedy
Wieden+Kennedy
Wieden+Kennedy is an independently owned American advertising agency best known for its work for Nike...
proposed to Honda a new advertising strategy based on the company's Japanese motto, "Yume No Chikara" ("Power of Dreams"). The stated goal of the campaign was to increase Honda's share of the UK market to five percent within three years and to change the public image of the brand from "dull but functional" to "warm and consumer-friendly", all on a lower marketing budget than their predecessors had demanded.
The first series of promotions in the United Kingdom adopted the strapline
Advertising slogan
Advertising slogans are short, often memorable phrases used in advertising campaigns. They are claimed to be the most effective means of drawing attention to one or more aspects of a product. A strapline is a British term used as a secondary sentence attached to a brand name...
"What if...?", and explored various "dream-like" scenarios. The first television campaign explicitly introduced the premise of the campaign by asking what would happen if the world's favourite word (Okay
Okay
"Okay" is a colloquial English word denoting approval, acceptance, agreement, assent, or acknowledgment. "Okay" has frequently turned up as a loanword in many other languages...
) was replaced with "What if?". The next few pieces of the campaign, "Pecking Order", "Seats", and "Bus Lane" for television and "Doodle", "Big Grin", and "Oblonger" for radio, became progressively more surreal, and featured oddities ranging from a traffic cone draped in leopard fur to trees growing traffic lights from their branches. In 2002, Matt Gooden, a creative director
Creative Director
A creative director is a position often found within the graphic design, film, music, fashion, advertising, media or entertainment industries, but may be useful in other creative organizations such as web development and software development firms as well....
, and Ben Walker, a copywriter
Copywriting
Copywriting is the use of words and ideas to promote a person, business, opinion or idea. Although the word copy may be applied to any content intended for printing , the term copywriter is generally limited to promotional situations, regardless of the medium...
, proposed a new television and cinema advertisement to promote the seventh-generation
Honda Accord (Japan and Europe seventh generation)
The seventh-generation Honda Accord for the European and Japanese markets was a mid-sized sedan and wagon, sold by Honda from 2002 to 2008.The European and JDM Accords were integrated on the previous Japanese Accord's chassis, but with a new body. No longer made in Swindon, those Accords are all...
Honda Accord
Honda Accord
The Honda Accord is a series of compact, mid-size and full-size automobiles manufactured by Honda since 1976, and sold in a majority of automotive markets throughout the world....
line that had recently been rolled out in Europe and Japan. The advertisement, based around a complex chain reaction of moving parts from the Accord itself, was approved and given the working title "Cog".
Pre-production
Gooden and Walker had been working together since 1988. By 2002, their portfolio included a Guinness World RecordGuinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
-holding one-second advertisement produced for Leo Burnett Worldwide
Leo Burnett Worldwide
Leo Burnett Worldwide is an American advertising company, created in 1935 by Leo Burnett. The company was opened in Chicago in 1935. In 1950 the company started its two first major advertising projects, for Kellogg’s and P&G....
, and a depression-awareness booklet for the Charlie Walker Memorial Trust. The pair approached Honda with a rough, low-budget 30-second trial film inspired by the children's board game Mouse Trap
Mouse Trap (board game)
Mouse Trap is a board game first published by Ideal in 1963 for two or more players. Over the course of the game, players at first cooperate to build a working Rube Goldberg-like mouse trap...
, Caractacus Potts
Caractacus Potts
Caractacus Potts is one of the main characters in the family film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He is an eccentric inventor who lives with his twin eight-year-old children, Jeremy & Jemima, and Grandpa Potts, on the Potts' hilltop farm...
' breakfast-making machine in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (film)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a 1968 musical film with a script by Roald Dahl and Ken Hughes, and songs by the Sherman Brothers, loosely based on Ian Fleming's novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car. It starred Dick Van Dyke as Caractacus Potts and Sally Ann Howes as Truly Scrumptious. The...
, and a 1987 Swiss art film
Art film
An art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience...
by Peter Fischli and David Weiss
Peter Fischli & David Weiss
Peter Fischli and David Weiss , often shortened to Fischli/Weiss, are an artist duo that have been collaborating since 1979. They are among the most renowned contemporary artists of Switzerland...
, Der Lauf der Dinge (The Way Things Go
The Way Things Go
The Way Things Go is a 1987 art film by the Swiss artist duo Peter Fischli and David Weiss. It documents a long causal chain assembled of everyday objects, resembling a Rube Goldberg machine....
).
The Honda executives were intrigued, but demanded a cut using actual automotive parts before giving permission to go ahead with the full-scale project. "Cog" was approved with a budget of £1 million, and Gooden & Walker recruited a London-based team to go through the logistics of the shoot in detail. The team, which comprised engineers, special effect
Special effect
The illusions used in the film, television, theatre, or entertainment industries to simulate the imagined events in a story are traditionally called special effects ....
s technicians, car designers, and even a sculptor, spent a month working with parts from a disassembled Honda Accord before the design for the advertisement's set
Set construction
Set construction is the process by which a set designer works in collaboration with the director of a production to create the set for a theatrical, film or television production...
was even finalised. Approval for the script took another month. Honda insisted that several specific Accord features, such as a door with a wing-mirror indicator and a rain-sensitive windscreen, appear in the final cut. The company planned to highlight these features in sales brochures. Antoine Bardou-Jacquet was hired to direct the piece. Bardou-Jacquet was mostly known for directing several award-winning music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s, including Alex Gopher's "The Child", Playgroup
Playgroup (band)
Playgroup is a British dance act. Basically the project of musician and designer Trevor Jackson, they were associated with the electroclash movement.Jackson has also performed under the names Underdog and Skull.-Albums:...
's "Number One", and Air's "How Does It Make You Feel".
Filming
Bardou-Jacquet wanted to compose the advertisement with as little computer-generated imageryComputer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
as possible, believing that the final product would be that much more appealing to its audience. To this end, he set two months aside for the creation of hundreds of conceptual drawings detailing various possible interactions between the parts, and a further four months for practical testing and development. For the testing phase, the script was broken into small segments, each comprising only one or two interactions. Ideas deemed unworkable by the testing crew, such as airbag
Airbag
An Airbag is a vehicle safety device. It is an occupant restraint consisting of a flexible envelope designed to inflate rapidly during an automobile collision, to prevent occupants from striking interior objects such as the steering wheel or a window...
explosions and collisions between front and rear sections of the car, were abandoned, and the remaining segments were slowly brought together until the full and final sequence was developed.
The final cut of "Cog" consists of two continuous sixty-second dolly shots
Tracking shot
In motion picture terminology, a tracking shot is a segment in which the camera is mounted on a camera dolly, a wheeled platform that is pushed on rails while the picture is being taken...
taken from a technocrane
Technocrane
Technocrane is a telescopic crane that is used in the film industry. There are many different sizes available from 15 ft to 100 ft. The camera is mounted on the remote head on the end of the crane and is moved by a camera operator at a control desk. The Technocrane can telescope at...
, stitched together later in post-production
Post-production
Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art...
. (The stitching appears during the moment when the muffler rolls across the floor.) Four days of filming were required to get these two shots, two days for each minute-long section. Filming sessions lasted seven hours and the work was exacting, as some parts needed to be positioned with an accuracy of a sixteenth of an inch. Despite the detailed instructions derived from the testing period, small variations in ambient temperature, humidity and settling dust continually threw off the movement of the parts enough to end the sequence early. It took 90 minutes on the first day just to get the initial transmission bearing to roll correctly into the second. Between testing and filming, around 600 take
Take
A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production.-Film:In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup"...
s were needed to capture the final cut. The team commandeered two of Honda's six hand-assembled Accords—one to roll off the trailer at the end of the advertisement, the other to be stripped for parts. While several sections of the early scripts had to be abandoned due to the total unavailability of certain Accord components, by the time production finished the accumulated spare parts filled two articulated
Articulated vehicle
An articulated vehicle is a vehicle which has a permanent or semi-permanent pivoting joint in its construction, allowing the vehicle to turn more sharply. There are many kinds of articulated vehicles, from heavy equipment to buses, trams and trains...
lorries
Truck
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, with the smallest being mechanically similar to an automobile...
.
Post-production
"Cog" needed only limited post-production work, as the decision had been made early on to eschew computer-generated imagery wherever possible. To further reduce the work required, "Barnsley", a specialist in the FlameAutodesk Media and Entertainment
Autodesk Media and Entertainment, formerly Discreet, is based in Montreal, Quebec as the entertainment division of Autodesk. This division produces software used in feature films, television commercials and computer games. It also provides products for management and distribution to complement its...
editing tool (real name, Andrew Wood), from The Mill
The Mill (post-production)
The Mill is a post-production and visual effects company launched in 1990 with offices in London, New York and Los Angeles.The Mill's Film special effects subsidiary, Mill Film, won an Oscar for its work on the film Gladiator. The Mill was the first UK-based post-production company to set up...
, spent a lot of time on set during filming, where he advised the film crew on whether particular sections could be accomplished more easily by re-filming or by manipulating the image afterwards. Even so, the constant movement of the components on-camera made it difficult to achieve a seamless transition between the two 60-second shots. Several sections also required minor video editing, such as re-centering the frame to stay closer to the action, removal of wires, highlighting a spray of water, and adjusting the pace for dramatic purposes.
Schedule
"Cog" was first aired on British television on Sunday 6 April 2003. It filled an entire commercial break in ITVITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
's coverage of the Brazilian Grand Prix
2003 Brazilian Grand Prix
The 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on April 6, 2003 at Autódromo José Carlos Pace . This was the 700th World Championship event....
. The release was widely remarked upon by the media, with articles appearing in both broadsheets such as The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, and The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, and tabloid papers such as The Sun and The Daily Mirror
The Daily Mirror
The Daily Mirror is a British national daily tabloid newspaper which was founded in 1903. Twice in its history, from 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was changed to read simply The Mirror, which is how the paper is often referred to in popular parlance. It had an...
. The day after "Cog"'s debut, the Honda website received more hits than at any time in its history, and overnight became the second most-popular automotive website in the UK.
The full 120-second version of the advertisement aired only 10 times in all, and only in the 10 days after the initial screening. The slots were chosen for maximum impact, mostly in high-profile sporting events such as the UEFA Champion's League football match between Manchester United
Manchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
and Real Madrid
Real Madrid C.F.
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol , commonly known as Real Madrid, is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. The club have won a record 31 La Liga titles, the Primera División of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional , 18 Copas del Rey, 8 Spanish Super Cups, 1 Copa Eva Duarte and 1 Copa de la...
. The full version was then put aside in favour of a 60-second and five 30-second variations, which continued to air for a further six weeks. These shortened versions made use of newly introduced interactive options
Interactive advertising
Interactive advertising uses online or offline interactive media to communicate with consumers and to promote products, brands, services, and public service announcements, corporate or political groups....
on the Sky Digital
Sky Digital (UK & Ireland)
Sky is the brand name for British Sky Broadcasting's digital satellite television and radio service, transmitted from SES Astra satellites located at 28.2° east and Eutelsat's Eurobird 1 satellite at 28.5°E. The service was originally launched as Sky Digital, distinguishing it from the original...
television network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
. Viewers were encouraged to press a button on their remote control, bringing up a menu that allowed the viewer to see the full 120-second version of the advertisement. Other menu options included placing an order for a free documentary DVD and a brochure for the Honda Accord. The DVD, which was also included as an insert in 1.2 million newspapers in the first week of the commercial's rollout, contained a "making-of" documentary featuring interviews and behind-the-scenes
Making-of
In cinema, a making-of, also known as behind-the-scenes, is a documentary film that features the production of a film or television program...
footage of the production process, a virtual tour of the Accord, the original music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
to "Rapper's Delight
Rapper's Delight
"Rapper's Delight" is a 1979 single by American hip hop trio The Sugarhill Gang. While it was not the first single to feature rapping, it is generally considered to be the song that first popularized hip hop in the United States and around the world. The song's opening lyric "I said a hip hop, a...
" by the Sugarhill Gang
The Sugarhill Gang
The Sugarhill Gang is an American hip hop group, known mostly for their 1979 hit, "Rapper's Delight", the first hip hop single to become a Top 40 hit. The song uses the instrumental track from the classic hit "Good Times" by Chic as its foundation....
, and an illustrated guide to all the parts shown in "Cog". The interactive 30-second versions of "Cog" proved hugely successful. Over 250,000 people used the menu option, spending an average of two and a half minutes in the dedicated advertising area. A significant number watched the looped 120-second version for up to ten minutes. Of those who opened the menu, 10,000 requested either a DVD or a brochure, and Honda used the data collected from the interactive option to arrange a number of test drive
Test drive
A test drive is the driving of an automobile to assess its drivability, or roadworthiness, and general operating state. A person who tests vehicles for a living, either for an automobile company or a motorsports team, is called a test driver....
s.
Expansion of the "Cog" campaign to a worldwide market was fraught with a number of logistical difficulties. The cost of airing a 120-second commercial proved prohibitive in most markets. Combined with Honda's use of different advertising agencies in different regions and the relative autonomy of its various business unit
Strategic business unit
In essence, the SBU is a profit making area that focuses on a combination of product offer and market segment, requiring its own marketing plan, competitor analysis, and marketing campaign.A Strategic Business Unit emerges at the cross-over between:...
s in marketing decisions, meant that "Cog" screened in only a few selected markets: the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Australia, and in cinemas in only a handful of other countries. For most markets, including the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the only way for audiences to see the piece was via the Internet, or in one of a handful of unsolicited and unpaid broadcasts on news channel review programmes. Traffic to Honda websites quadrupled; in the first few weeks, "Cog" was downloaded by over a million people. By mid-May, the number was twice that. It has been estimated that more people in the United States voluntarily chose to watch "Cog" than any other Honda commercial.
In financial terms, "Cog" was an unprecedented success for Honda. The £32,000 spent on placements on the BSkyB network alone achieved a greater response than a previous £1 million direct mailing campaign. Sales of Honda vehicles in the United Kingdom jumped by 28 percent, despite lower marketing and public relations spending by the company and an increase in prices relative to their competitors. Visits to Honda dealerships rose from an average of 3,500 to 3,700 per month, with 22 percent of these resulting in the purchase of a Honda, compared to 19 percent before the campaign. In all, "Cog" has been credited with increasing Honda's revenue by nearly £400m.
Plagiarism accusations
Shortly after Cog appeared on television, Wieden+Kennedy received a letter from Peter Fischli and David WeissPeter Fischli & David Weiss
Peter Fischli and David Weiss , often shortened to Fischli/Weiss, are an artist duo that have been collaborating since 1979. They are among the most renowned contemporary artists of Switzerland...
, creators of the 1987 art film Der Lauf der Dinge
The Way Things Go
The Way Things Go is a 1987 art film by the Swiss artist duo Peter Fischli and David Weiss. It documents a long causal chain assembled of everyday objects, resembling a Rube Goldberg machine....
. The film was well known in the advertising industry, and its creators had been approached several times with offers for the right to use the concept, but had always declined. The letter pointed out several similarities between their work and "Cog", and warned the agency that they were considering legal action on the basis of the "commercialisation and simplification of the film's content and the false impression that [they] might have endorsed the use". When interviewed by Creative Review magazine, the pair made clear that they wished they had been consulted on the advertisement, and that they would not have given permission if asked. Media publications quickly picked up the story, and asserted that Fishcli and Weiss were already in the process of litigation against the car manufacturer.
Comparisons were made between the case and that of Mehdi Norowzian
Mehdi Norowzian
Mehdi Norowzian is a British director who has directed two films: Leo starring Joseph Fiennes and Elizabeth Shue, and Killing Joe , which starred Daniel Bliss...
, a British director who complained about Diageo
Diageo
Diageo plc is a global alcoholic beverages company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest producer of spirits and a major producer of beer and wine....
's, the drinks conglomerate, for allegedly plagiarising his work in their 1994 Anticipation campaign for Guinness
Guinness
Guinness is a popular Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin. Guinness is directly descended from the porter style that originated in London in the early 18th century and is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide, brewed in almost...
-brand stout
Stout
Stout is a dark beer made using roasted malt or barley, hops, water and yeast. Stouts were traditionally the generic term for the strongest or stoutest porters, typically 7% or 8%, produced by a brewery....
. The matter was complicated by the fact that Wieden+Kennedy acknowledged that the film had served as an "inspiration" for "Cog", and had distributed copies of the work to its script-writers. Ultimately, Fischli and Weiss never filed a lawsuit against either Wieden+Kennedy or Honda UK, but their accusations continue to colour perceptions of the work within the advertising community.
Awards
| List of awards | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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EWLINE
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Despite the lingering shadow of these accusations, "Cog" drew an unprecedented amount of critical acclaim. It received more awards than any commercial in history; so many that it was both the most-awarded commercial of 2004 and the 33rd-most-awarded commercial of 2003. The jury for the British Television Advertising Awards gave the piece the highest score of any commercial ever recorded; the jury's chairman Charles Inge commented: "My own opinion is that this is the best commercial that I have seen for at least ten years." After awarding "Cog" with several Silver awards, the president-elect of the D&AD Awards, Dick Powell, said of the piece: "It delights and entrances, [...] it communicates engineering quality and quality of thinking, and leaves you with a smile."
Having swept the majority of award ceremonies within the advertising community to date, "Cog" was widely believed to be the favourite for the industry's top award, the Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is a global event for those working in advertising and related fields. The seven-day festival, incorporating the awarding of the Lions awards, is held yearly at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France...
. Its chief competition was thought to be "Sheet Metal" for Saturn automobiles. "Cog" held a disadvantage in that the chairman of the Cannes voting jury, Dan Wieden
Dan Wieden
Dan Wieden is an American advertising executive who co-founded Wieden+Kennedy, and who coined the Nike tagline "Just Do It".He and David Kennedy were listed as number 22 on the Advertising Age 100 ad people of the 20th century...
, was one of the founders of Wieden+Kennedy, the firm responsible for creating "Cog"; tradition holds that it is bad form for the chairman of the jury to vote for a piece by his or her own agency.
The result at Cannes was a surprise; after the longest judging period in the festival's history, the Grand Prix went to neither of the two event favourites. Instead, the jury awarded the prize to "Lamp
Lamp (advertisement)
Lamp is a television and cinema advertisement released in September 2002 to promote the IKEA chain of furniture stores in the United States. The 60-second commercial was the first part of the "Unböring" campaign conceived by advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, and follows a lamp abandoned...
", a U.S. advertisement directed by Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television...
for the IKEA
IKEA
IKEA is a privately held, international home products company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture such as beds and desks, appliances and home accessories. The company is the world's largest furniture retailer...
chain of furniture stores. Voted second was a British ad, "Ear Tennis" for the Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
video game console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
. Chief among speculated reasons for the outcome was the plagiarism debate surrounding "Cog". Ben Walker told Adweek
Adweek
Adweek is a weekly American advertising trade publication that was first published in 1978....
"A couple of people on the jury told me the reason it didn't win is 'cause they didn't want to be seen to be awarding something which people in some corners had said we copied."
In advertising
The popularity and recognition received by "Cog" led a number of other companies to create pieces in a similar vein—either as homages, in parody, or simply to further explore the design space. The first of these was Just Works, a deliberate parody advertisement for the 118 118118 118 (UK)
118 118 is a UK directory enquiries provider based in Cardiff that assists customers with telephone number enquiries and general queries.The service is provided by The Number UK Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of US directory enquiries provider Knowledge Generation Bureau , whose company motto is...
directory assistance
Directory assistance
In telecommunications, directory assistance or directory enquiries is a phone service used to find out a specific telephone number and/or address of a residence, business, or government entity.-Technology:...
service in the summer of 2003, in which the Honda parts are replaced with such oddities as a tractor wheel, a flamingo and a space hopper, with impetus provided by two moustachioed runners. Just Works was created by advertising agency WCRS. It was written by Anson Harris and directed by JJ Keith, whose previous work included spots for BT Cellnet, Heinz
H. J. Heinz Company
The H. J. Heinz Company , commonly known as Heinz and famous for its "57 Varieties" slogan and its ketchup, is an American food company with world headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.Perhaps best known for its ketchup, the H.J...
, and Guinness
Guinness
Guinness is a popular Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin. Guinness is directly descended from the porter style that originated in London in the early 18th century and is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide, brewed in almost...
, and the Oscar-nominated short film Holiday Romance. Honda refused to give WCRS permission to copy their advert, which, under BACC
Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre
The Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre was an NGO which until December 31, 2007 pre-approved most British television advertising. The work of the BACC has been taken over by Clearcast Ltd....
guidelines, prevented either the 60- or 90-second Just Works spots from appearing on British television. Instead, the ad was shown online and promoted virally
Viral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
. Just Works went on to win a number of awards in its own right, including Golds in several categories at the British Television Advertising Awards and the Creative Circle Awards, a Silver Lion from the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, and a Bronze award from The One Show
The One Club
Founded in New York City as The One Club for Art & Copy, The One Club produces three annual award competitions: One Show, One Show Design, and One Show Interactive...
.
In 2004, BBC Radio Manchester
BBC Radio Manchester
BBC Radio Manchester is a BBC Local Radio station broadcasting to Greater Manchester in North West England. It broadcasts 24 hours a day from studios at MediaCityUK in Salford Quays via a transmitter at Holme Moss, with a small repeater at Saddleworth covering Tameside and Saddleworth...
asked for and received permission from Wieden+Kennedy to produce a television advertisement in the style of "Cog" to advertise coverage of football events by local radio stations. The ad, which was directed by Reg Sanders and produced by Tracy Williams, shows pieces of sports equipment such as footballs and team shirts knocking into each other in sequence. In all, 65 versions were broadcast, each tailored to advertise the local BBC Radio station. Wieden+Kennedy were pleased to gain the extra publicity and Neil Christie, managing director of Wieden+Kennedy London, commented: "We are very happy that every time the BBC runs one of their adverts, the person who watches it thinks of Honda."
Campaign magazine listed "Cog", along with Balls for the Sony BRAVIA
BRAVIA
BRAVIA is a Sony brand used to market its high-definition LCD televisions, projection TVs and front projectors and for the PlayStation 3 , along with its home cinema range under the sub-brand BRAVIA Theatre. The BRAVIA name is an acronym of "Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Architecture"...
line of high-definition television
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
s, as one of the most-imitated commercials in recent times. Among the pieces believed to draw inspiration from "Cog" are a 2003 piece for breakfast cereal
Breakfast cereal
A breakfast cereal is a food made from processed grains that is often, but not always, eaten with the first meal of the day. It is often eaten cold, usually mixed with milk , water, or yogurt, and sometimes fruit but sometimes eaten dry. Some cereals, such as oatmeal, may be served hot as porridge...
Sugar Puffs
Sugar Puffs
Sugar Puffs are a honey-flavoured breakfast cereal made from sugar-coated wheat sold in the United Kingdom. For many years it was made by the Quaker Oats Company but in 2006 it was sold to Big Bear t/a Honey Monster Foods, based in Leicester...
, Nearness for the Oslo School of Architecture and Design
Oslo School of Architecture and Design
The Oslo School of Architecture and Design, AHO, is one of Norway's three architectural schools.AHO is an autonomous institution within the Norwegian university system. The school was established directly after World War II as a «crisis course» for students of architecture who were unable to finish...
, a 30-second animated advertisement for Heinz Tomato Ketchup
Heinz Tomato Ketchup
Heinz Tomato Ketchup is a brand of ketchup produced by the H. J. Heinz Company. It is the largest and fastest-selling product the company has ever distributed.First introduced in 1876, it remains one of the best selling brands of ketchup...
, an advertisement for BBC Radio Merseyside
BBC Radio Merseyside
BBC Radio Merseyside is the BBC Local Radio service for the English metropolitan county of Merseyside and north Cheshire. It was the third BBC local radio station to launch on 22 November 1967 initially serving the south west of historic Lancashire....
football coverage, and the 2007 Tipping Point, advertising Guinness stout. When asked about the similarities between "Cog" and "Tipping Point", Paul Brazier, executive creative director at the advertising agency behind Tipping Point, replied: "I knew the ad was similar in places, but as an executive creative director, you have to look at things like that and make a decision. The fact the TV ad was only part of a huge internet campaign meant that I thought it wasn’t that near "Cog"."
Outside advertising
"Cog" has also inspired a number of other creative endeavours outside of the advertising industry, including an elaborate dominoDominoes
Dominoes generally refers to the collective gaming pieces making up a domino set or to the subcategory of tile games played with domino pieces. In the area of mathematical tilings and polyominoes, the word domino often refers to any rectangle formed from joining two congruent squares edge to edge...
-toppling world record attempt by Robin Weijers, and a three-minute introductory trailer to the BBC show Bang Goes the Theory
Bang Goes the Theory
Bang Goes the Theory is a British television science magazine series, co-produced by the BBC and the Open University, that began on 27 July 2009 on BBC One. Presented by Liz Bonnin, Jem Stansfield, Dallas Campbell and Dr...
. In 2004, the United States Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
Training Centre in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
requested permission to use the ad in their training regime as a demonstration of the importance of attention to detail. Discussion of "Cog" as an example of the confluence of art and advertising, and as an example of inspiration versus plagiarism, has been ongoing. Mark Leckey
Mark Leckey
Mark Leckey is a British artist, working with collage art, music and video. His found art and found footage pieces span several videos, most notably Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore and Industrial Lights and Magic , for which he won the 2008 Turner Prize.-Life:Leckey was born in Birkenhead, near...
included "Cog" as part of his video art installation
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
"Cinema in the Round", in the Tate Britain
Tate Britain
Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...
gallery, London, in 2008. It was also the focus of a panel discussion at the Tate Modern
Tate Modern
Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...
during a retrospective of Fischli & Weiss' work there in 2006.
The next piece created by Wieden+Kennedy for Honda, Sense, advertised the company's "Integrated Motor System
Integrated Motor Assist
Integrated Motor Assist is Honda's hybrid car technology, introduced in 1999 on the Insight.It is a specific implementation of a parallel hybrid. It uses an electric motor mounted between the internal combustion engine and transmission to act as a starter motor, engine balancer, and assist...
" hybrid car
Hybrid electric vehicle
A hybrid electric vehicle is a type of hybrid vehicle and electric vehicle which combines a conventional internal combustion engine propulsion system with an electric propulsion system. The presence of the electric powertrain is intended to achieve either better fuel economy than a conventional...
technology. Deliberate steps were taken to distance the spot from "Cog", using metaphor to make the promotion, rather than focusing on the technology itself. In 2005, Honda was once again in contention for the Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Film Festival, with the animated 60-second spot Grrr
Grrr (advert)
Grrr is a 2004 advertising campaign launched by Honda to promote its newly launched i-CTDi diesel engines in the United Kingdom. The campaign, which centred around a 90-second television and cinema advert, also comprised newspaper and magazine advertisements, radio commercials, free distributed...
. This time, it returned home triumphant, defeating Singing in the rain for the Volkswagen Golf
Volkswagen Golf
The Volkswagen Golf is a small family car manufactured by Volkswagen since 1974 and marketed worldwide across six generations, in various body configurations and under various nameplates – as the Volkswagen Rabbit in the United States and Canada , and as the Volkswagen Caribe in Mexico .The...
and Stella Artois
Stella Artois
Stella Artois is a 5% ABV lager brewed in Leuven, Belgium since 1926. In the UK, Canada and New Zealand a 4% ABV version is also available.-Production:...
' Pilot to bring home the top prize. Antoine Bardou-Jacquet went on to direct two further Honda advertisements for Wieden+Kennedy. Choir, created with the help of fellow "Cog" team-members Ben Walker and Matt Gooden, was released in 2006, and Problem Playground in 2008.
External links
Cog- "Cog" – via W+K website
Derivatives
- BBC Radio homage – via YouTube
- Making of the BBC Radio homage – via YouTube
- Tipping Point - via BoardsBoards (magazine)Boards is a former international trade publication catering to the advertising community. Launched in August 1999, the magazine was published monthly until May 2010, when a corporate restructuring of its Canadian publisher, Brunico Communications Ltd., led to the brand's shelving...
website