The Civic Project: Musical Road
Last night I saw a TV spot that seemed vapid and pointless. Something about driving and musical roads. I knew it was for the Honda Civic but it didn’t seem to be accomplishing anything. It hit me as a blatant waste of national advertising dollars in an economy where every dime should be used to generate the maximum ROI – even more so now than usual. So I came in this morning with the intent purpose of filleting these perpetrators of such flagrant economic irresponsibility. And then I revisited the spot on YouTube.
I love that musical road.
I want all roads to have music. To be entertaining and engaging rather than annoying and nerve wracking. Those “stay awake” striations are always a little unnerving. Wouldn’t musical vibrations keep us awake just as effectively? And bravo to Honda for making our lives just that little bit better. I realized, after completing my ten minute fact finding mission, that I wasn’t watching a TV spot per se – I was watching a very cool strategy begin to unfold.
Honda, the car company, has taken it upon themselves to make our roads sing. And, even more strategically, the “making of” video proclaims that Honda has always been about “connecting drivers to the road”. OK that’s a bit of a stretch – but undoubtedly one for the marketing textbooks. These guys are really doing something cool! And it’s so strategically on target for their brand. So why am I worried?
Well, for starters, they’re spending a lot of advertising dollars on what I’ll refer to as their “teaser” ads. Might be brilliant if timed to perfection- but they’ve got a small window of opportunity – and then they’re just wasting money. Once we get past that we start to wonder if the whole effort will be predicated on one road in Lancaster, California, or if Honda really intends to change this country’s roadscape. Can Honda afford to make a notable impact – or will they spearhead the effort and attempt to engage engineers and architects designing our roads and bridges, i.e. where are they going with this? And finally, is all of this really going to make us buy Honda Civics? In my case the answer would be, hell no – but in fairness they’re probably not targeting me. I will certainly be watching for reports on how Civic sales are impacted. And by God I’ll be rooting for them!
This post was written by: Robin Donovan
April 7th, 2009 at 11:19 am
i agree totally-ive seen this commercial for the 10th time maybe, and finally i had to get my opinion in also-pointless, waste of money, waste of time, and has nothing to do with a honda. these roads are scattered across america, and honda has absolutley nothing to do with them. then they go ahead and call it the honda project? well if they are testing to see which part of the car comes off first, then i see a point. whoever got paid in marketing for this commercial, and whoever approved it should be spanked.
April 7th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
I think it shows that the Civic allows a lot of road noise. Who wants that?
April 8th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
You’re a god damn fucking idiot
the people who did this commercial is most likely a private party seeing as how national traffic laws would probably prohibit the destruction of roads for entertainment use it would be the same as vandalizing, so all honda would be paying for would be the publishing of the commercial and the advertising of it’s cars, secondly YOU MORON the use of money is what Obama wants right now, his stimulus package is made to try to get spending to fuel the economy
so you retarded blogger
you should probably open up your narrow ass mind before blogging about it to the world
April 9th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
That last comment has to be the funniest thing I’ve read today.
April 11th, 2009 at 11:04 am
I see a new passive advertising stradegy emerging, especially around highway exits and off ramps that lead to hotels, fast food places, and gas stations.
The subliminal marketing is endless, and we now have corporations to fund our highways, not just tax revenues!
My lawyer has been contacted!
April 12th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
it’s so funny to me how car companies like Honda toot their own horns about how their cars get great gas mileage and try to appeal the new ‘green’ movement of conserving energy, etc.. and then they make commercials like this one … I wonder how much energy was used to run the machine used to cut all those grooves in the road so that they could burn gas running over it just to make those noises. Every time I see this commercial on tv, all I can think is “what a COLOSSAL waste of time and energy”
April 12th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
I don’t get! How did they do that?!!?!?! -.-!