Auto Express today announced the winner of their ‘Best Car TV Ad Ever’ poll – Honda’s Cog ad by Wieden + Kennedy won with 31% of the votes! Many thanks to the readers of Auto Express for their votes.

The production for this ad was notoriously complex, requiring 606 takes to get the sequence right.

In an article written at the time of the campaign's launch, the Daily Telegraph wrote:

Cog looks certain to become an advertising legend and part of its allure
is the seemingly effortless way the relay of parts slide and touch and
roll with such apparent ease. The reality of the film's production was
slightly different. It was, by most measures of human patience, a
nightmare.

Here's a video we put together about how the ad was made, showing that it was all done for real. (Tony Davidson hasn't aged a day since this was filmed!)

Most ads run and are quickly forgotten. For Cog still to be topping polls ten years after it ran, suggests that it was worth going through the nightmare to create something that has lasting appeal.