Honda - The Cog

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Honda's 2003 Accord commercial, The Cog, shows a long Rube Goldberg chain reaction built entirely from car parts. The stunt was filmed for real, without CGI, over many takes.

HN people hold it up as one of the great car commercials and as proof that a real, painstaking stunt beats effects.

“There are only two car commercials. Everything else is a pale imitation.”
Brand strategy & advertisingVisual storytelling & cinematography
#honda#advertising#rubegoldberg#commercial#practicaleffects

8 comments from Hacker News

e
@ethbr02022 · in “The Kia Instrument”
There are only two car commercials. Everything else is a pale imitation. ▶ this video
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n
@n1b0m2025 · in “The 2005 Sony Bravia ad”
So many iconic adverts from the 2000s. One of my favourite is the Honda Cog: ▶ this video
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a
@aix12022 · in “Those perfect cars you see in ads? Here's the Mad Max machine underneath the CGI”
This reminded me of "Cog", a British Honda ad from 2003. Two tracking shots stitched together (~100 painstakingly set up takes, no CGI). Great stuff. :) ▶ this video link)
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S
@SQL22192015 · in “The Cog – 2003”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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a
@abruzzi2015 · in “The whimsical but surprisingly dark world of Rube Goldberg machines”
One of the most impressive recent rube goldbergs was a commercial Honda did to advertise their Accord. It was made with parts from the car and shows off several technologies such as automatic windshield wipers: ▶ this video
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p
@pitdesi2011 · in “Stop motion video shot over 2 years with 288,000 jelly beans”
This is the type of thing that you wouldn't have done 10 years ago because noone would have found out about it. Reminds me of the Amazing Honda Accord commercial - the Cog... Rube Goldberg machine all done without CGI (5 months of pre-work, then 605 takes until they got to one that didn't screw up somewhere) ▶ this video They did a lot of work that they could've avoided with CGI, but where would the fun be? Making of video: link Another good one that is similar in the sense that they went through a whole lot of trouble is the Sony Bravia commercial link They did a lot of work that they could've avoided with CGI, but where would the fun be? BTW, it seems Jelly Belly was in on the fun a little bit... link At the very least, I'd imagine that she didn't pay for the jelly beans
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j
@javawizard2024 · in “Windows 10 wallpaper was physically built and photographed (2015)”
You must not be a fan of ▶ this video then. (That commercial literally had Honda execs complimenting the team on the quality of their CGI when they first saw it. Needless to say they were blown away when they found out it was real.)
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p
@pdpi2021 · in “HBO is about to lose 5M customers, and it isn’t concerned”
Advertising comes in many flavours, and different flavours work for different people. E.g. I find that most tech-y people I know who say "advertising doesn't work on me" are very susceptible to the "laundry-list of features" type of advertising that tricks them into thinking they're being rational and objective about their decision process, while not questioning why they should care about any of those features. For me, there's ads I actively enjoy watching. The old Cog[0] ad for the Honda Accord is one such case, as is the He-Man/Skeletor[1] ad for Money Supermarket (well, that and every other ad in that campaign). These work incredibly well on me as the brand awareness sort of marketing, and I'm sufficiently aware that I can correct for it — but I'm almost certainly unaware of my susceptibility to other sorts. 0. ▶ this video 1. link
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