Just got some interesting feedback from Honda on the success of the new Civic Web site.

804,000 people watched our Civic ‘Choir’ ad ad online last week. Not bad. The viewing figures have been so high that they have needed to host the ad on a different server from the rest of their site in order to cope with demand.

You can put more pressure on Honda’s bandwidth here.

Interesting perspective here about our Honda ads from pop musician/commentator, Momus. I was intrigued to see what he said, as I’ve liked some of his work. (I was humming ‘Hairstyle of the Devil to myself as I read his critique.) He reckons that we’re basically evil. Partly because he thinks we’re ripping off the real artists. Partly because he thinks car ads are intrinsically evil and ingenious. The source he suggests gave us the idea for Choir, Tomomi Adachi’s Royal Chorus, is completely unfamiliar to me. And the link doesn’t make the connection any clearer.

Interestingly, he says of the ‘hate something change something’ idea from our Honda diesel spot,

‘It’s almost impossible to imagine such a slogan in Japan. Japanese car ads are short, bizarre, and unfailingly cute. No surprises in that, really. But the lack of sharkiness is refreshing.’

But the ‘hate something’ idea actually came directly from the briefing by Kenichi Nagahiro, the Japanese chief engineer at Honda, who told us that his hate for diesels inspired him to make a better engine. Suggests that the paradox of positive hate could be equally relevant (or equally evil) for a Japanese audience.