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.

Our new Honda Civic ‘Choir’ commercial seems to have sparked some debate in New Zealand on nzcreative circle’s blog. You can read it here.

Interesting to see just how heated opinions are, on an ad that’s never even run over there. Views range from ‘one of the biggest wanks I’ve ever seen’ to ‘genius’.

Whether you think the ad is any good or not it’s great to have provoked debate. Arguably, anything that tried to be distinctive and innovative will polarise opinion. But it’s a bit sad to see people still posting comments like, ‘Full credit to the agency wankers that talked them into it.’

Are these people living in some evil parallel universe where the client is the enemy and the agency’s job is to trick them into buying indulgent vanity trips? Do they really believe we’re not here to try to give our clients the best advice we can, in a commercially accountable context? Don’t they respect the people they work with? I guess they must hate their jobs.