The Superbowl is THE advertising event of the year in the U.S.A..
America is watching. And at half time in the match yesterday, America got a pep talk on behalf of Chrysler. The talk was delivered by Clint Eastwood.

Awesome work from Wieden + Kennedy Portland.

Here are some of the inital responses:

"Chrysler is king of the Superbowl spots", said CNN.

“2011’s best Super Bowl commercial was Eminem for Chrysler. It's only halftime, of course, but the greatest of 2012 so far has been Clint Eastwood for Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler in another all-American “Imported from Detroit” spot.” – PopWatch, Entertainment Weekly
 
“For the second year in a row, the car maker has won over audiences during Super Bowl XLVI with an emotional commercial. This time it featured a gritty Mr. Eastwood trying to rally Americans.” – Wall Street Journal
 
"Powerful and one of the best Super Bowl ads ever.” – Allen Adamson, managing director of Landor New York, as quoted by Wall Street Journal
 
“The message of unity apparently moved Chevrolet, which sent out a tweet thanking its competitor minutes after the ad aired: "Thank you for your trust in America. From the heart of Detroit to your homes, we feel the same way." – As reported by MLive.com
 
“Once again, Chrysler's Super Bowl ad won the hearts and minds of football fans, this time with a little help from Clint Eastwood and, of course, Detroit.” – CNNMoney.com
 
“Clint Eastwood brings the first goosebumps of the night. Can't beat that voice. Can't beat the message about bringing America back in the "second half."”– MSNBC.com
 
“Chrysler's post-halftime "Motor City is fighting back." Political ad? Clint Eastwood ad? Polar bear ad? Who cares! A great director and actor pulls off the most interesting — and compelling — ad of the entire Super Bowl.” – Newsday
 
“For the second consecutive year, Chrysler made viewers fall silent with a gritty, gut-level ad celebrating Detroit — and built around an icon not known for shilling for products.” – The Wrap
 
“Jokes about Eastwood running for president quickly became ubiquitous on Twitter.” – The Wrap
 
“The commercial talks about recovery, hope for the future and recognition of thehardships we currently face — in a way that no political candidate or sitting President has yet done. The combination of America, nostalgia and hope willalmost bring tears to your eyes…In a word, it was perfect.” – Jalopnik

Our new Honda commercial for the 2012 Civic has just been released. It's Ad of the Day in Adweek.

They say:

"Significant new Honda TV work from Wieden + Kennedy London is typically an anticipated event, and the brand's new "Spark" commercial does not disappoint. The spot, supporting the European launch of the ninth-generation 2012 Civic, is a metaphorical story about how the engineers behind the latest redesign approached the four-year effort.
The beautifully filmed spot—narrated by the longtime voice of Honda Europe, Garrison Keillor—tracks the journey of an idea from the darkness of inception to its dramatic full realization. Filmed in Iceland and Prague, the trip takes the spark across dramatic landscape to capture the trials and tribulations of creation. Toby Allen, the W+K copywriter on the commercial, says it wasn't just about using pyrotechnic magic. He and art director Jim Hilson wanted to give some plucky character to the spark as it navigates through a wind tunnel, around rugged mountains and is nearly drowned in the sea. "It's an abstract visualization of how to look at the birth of an idea, how it grew and overcame obstacles in development, and ultimately about the alchemy that happens when hundreds of ideas come together," says Allen. (You'll also notice references to old W+K ads for Honda, including the famous "Cog.")

The article continues:

While this spot, breaking on TV and online Tuesday, is about the new Civic, the intent is to have a larger halo effect on the brand. W+K creative director Chris Groom cites the role research and development play at Honda, given the company's breadth of manufacturing activities across categories like bikes, lawn mowers, robotics, generators and marine equipment. "Honda takes all that knowledge and they apply it to building a car. It's quite different from more linear car manufacturing—Honda give their engineers a lot of freedom. This is a company that believes half of its business lies in R&D."
Last fall, after the European debut of the 2012 Civic at the Frankfurt Motor Show, (for which we also devised the stand) W+K created three interactive elements to generate chatter before this TV launch, clickable from the brand's YouTube page: The first, last October, was "Follow Happy," an interactive game that allows the player to track the thought process of Honda engineers. W+K then created "The Experiment Game," an HTML5 game that uses physics principles to challenge players to create a chain reaction by placing a set of pop-up windows in sequence. (Not surprisingly, it has developed an enthusiastic following in the tech community.) The third interactive piece is "Off the Grid," which provides users with a 360-degree video environmental experience, inspired by Google Street View.

The campaign also includes press and outdoor: