How do you show off an entire company’s years of products and innovations in the mobility sector? Well, if you’re Honda the answer comes in the form of a two-minute commercial called ‘Paper’, developed by Academy Award-nominated PES, the creator of some of the most widely viewed stop-motion films of all time.
Honda’s ‘The Power of Dreams’ philosophy drives the company’s R&D and diverse array of advanced-technology products. The commercial therefore takes an unconventional approach to showcase this philosophy, depicting the journey these products have taken using paper — the medium where these dreams begin.
The commercial opens with weathered and sepia-like paper and progresses to modern graph paper, using inventive camera tricks to play with perspective and dimension throughout. It was entirely shot in-camera with a few scenes stitched together to create one seamless journey.
PES opens with founder Soichiro Honda’s use of a radio generator to power his wife’s bicycle. The story continues with Honda’s development of motorcycles including a nod to winning Isle of Man TT races (1961-1967), seguing to outboard motors and then to the first CVCC vehicle.
Nostalgia leads the viewer through a series of past Honda vehicle models, such as multiple generations of the Civic and Accord as well as the 2016 Pilot, to F1 and Indy racing to the development of robotics and jets and numerous innovations in between.
The commercial simply concludes with the copy, “You never know where a dream will lead you.”
Hats off to Honda’s marketing department for commissioning such a brilliant piece of work and to PES for the visionary approach to what is one of the most innovative ad campaigns I’ve seen in a long while.
