Here's an article I posted on IF this week:

I saw the new Honda 'film' for the first time last night and was blown away. We've mentioned on this site before (here & here) that advertising is not just about entertaining the audience, it's about selling a product.

The best ads do both.

The new Honda campaign is cut from the finest advertising cloth. There's a story within the ad, there's the brand story, and then there are the product stories. But the beauty of this is that they are all the same story, The Power of Dreams.

Watching the film with the sound turned up you feel as though Honda are actually tugging at your heart strings - throughout you're captivated by a bald man singing Andy Williams and driving the most mundane to the most exciting Honda products.

If you follow the call to action and check out the website you get rewarded with the opportunity to discover the deeper stories behind Honda's dream for each product as it rams home just how innovative a company Honda are. If you showed an ad exec a Honda Super Cub to sell they'd probably run a mile (it's hardly the most glamorous of products after all). But using the history and heritage of the product you realise that this vehicle has a place in history and that you actually quite fancy one.

It's not often that a company comes up with such a powerful line as 'The Power of Dreams' and has the belief in themselves to actually back it 110%. The recent Honda work has been excellent, not only from an entertainment perspective but also from a product perspective. Every step of the way you are staring at the product and slowly but surely deciding that you want one.

This campaign isn't particularly innovative or 'breakthrough'. It doesn't use media in an exciting new way, it's just a damn fine piece of advertising.

Tags: honda, advert