Honda's Human Sound Effects Choir


Good morning:

Check out the first item in particular. Wow...

HONDA CIVIC “HUMAN SOUND EFFECTS CHOIR” Brilliant! Here’s the latest award winning web-o-mercial from those wacky, creative folks at Weiden + Kennedy / London, on behalf of Honda in the UK. This time they assemble a 40 person choir in a parking garage to create a chorale about driving a Honda Civic---but only by using their voices as sound effects. You have to hear it to believe it. It’s long-form, for the Web only, two minutes in length, distributed only through the UK Civic Website. I predict this one will win the grand prize in the British advertising awards—and that would be the third year in a row for Honda. Hey, guess what? Garrison Keillor, official spokesman for Honda in the UK, does the VO. Wow: Honda Choir

VW GOLF “GENE KELLY UPDATED VIRAL E-MAIL” This is the viral e-mail of the week, and I’ll give a dollar to the person who gives me the best explanation of how they did it: Gene Kelly in his famous “Singing in the Rain” scene, suddenly breaks into hip hop, busting moves like Michael Jackson. You gotta see it to believe it, but it sure sells the “VW Golf: Updated” brand position: Gene Kelly Hip-Hop

IKEA “DROMKOK ET ALLA 2” You remember the wild Ikea “Dromkok” site from last year, with it’s 3-D “frozen moment” photography? It was the inspiration for our own Rav4 site for Toyota: (http://rav4.periscope.com/beta) Well, those wacky Swedes are back with a new version, and it’s fantastic! What’s very cool is that if you look over each scene carefully, there’s a little story being told. This great idea apparently was so good, they’re going to keep on making them for the coming year. Can’t wait to see the next one: Dromkok et Alla 2

VIRGIN MOBILE “DOG JUDO” I haven’t a clue what the conceptual link is here, but Virgin Mobile in the UK has started a viral campaign based on a series of animated episodes of “Dog Judo.” Here’s the first one, called “Power Date” in which a boy dog (who happens to be a black belt Judo master) has a glass of wine with a girl dog as part of a “power date” event. Huh? The goofy quotient on this is off the meter, but you have to like a dog trying very hard to be interested in why a another dog wears red sweaters. If the purpose of a viral campaign is to get people to pass it along to friends, I think this one works: Dog Judo

ADIDAS “STEP INTO KG” Kevin Garnett of the NBA T-Wolves is one of the endorsement pillars in the US for sneaker maker Adidas. Each year they re-tool their work with KG to bring more of his ebullient personality into his personal sneaker Website. This year’s version looks at five faces of KG: leader, kid, warrior, comedian, hero, each matching up with one of the five new television spots currently running. Lots of well designed rich media by SF interactive agrency EVB: Step into KG

MAYBELLINE “LES PODCASTS DES MAX DELORME” It’s in French, but it’s easy to understand that this is a very cool idea. Maybelline has created a series of video podcasts about how to apply make-up, featuring a french make-up artist, Max Delorme. One of the issues with podcasts is the small size of the screen, but these use extreme close-ups of a model’s eyes to show off techniques. Another thing I like about this is that it’s “evergreen” content---information that doesn’t really have a news timeframe of interest, so you could download it now, keep on your iPod for a couple of weeks or even months, and watch it when you were stuck on the subway or in a waiting room: Les Podcasts Des Max Delorme

BONUS: PETER NORVIG “THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS IN POWERPOINT” A guy named Peter Norvig reduced the Gettysburg Address to a PointPoint presentation, to prove a powerful point about the damage that Powerpoint can do to creative thinking. This deck has made the rounds, but if you haven’t seen it, it’s trenchant commentary on the danger of the PowerPoint content wizard. As I like to say: “Powerpoint---it can be used for good, or it can be used for evil”: Gettysburg Address in Powerpoint

Thanks to Stacey Barnes for the wonderful Honda link.

Enjoy the week.

Thanks-RJ