Honda 'choir' debate continues

Better to be argued over than to be ignored. And people certainly seem to be arguing about our Honda Civic 'Choir' ad.

There's an interesting debate on the Brand Republic forum .

Someone posts, 'Over 800,000 downloads of the ads? What about the cars? Berks.'

(Just to help clear up this concern, January sales figures show that the new Civic has been number two to Ford Focus in UK retail sales in its category. Good result, though of course this is principally down not to our ad but to the fact that it's a great car.)

On the other hand, someone else posts, 'Everyone I've spoken to outside of the advertising industry who buy cars and would buy a Honda love it.'

Further interesting debate amongst choir members about the merits or otherwise of the ad at this site.

One guy says:

'Give me about three titles of great choral pieces where the whole concept is to make the choir sound as un/inhuman as possible..........and exactly how popular is it?

I did all those "creative" things in college, and the most moving were always those that expressed higher level human feelings, emotions, not just a mere imitation of a mechanical machine....though I guess if cars make you hot, this piece might do the trick. I've done Ives, Strav, Schon, and plenty other recent composers, and it is mostly a lot of work with not as much emotional reward.

I feel the most lasting and memorable musical moments are those which elevate us to some higher spiritual or emotional plane----could you sit through 2+ hours of a concert like this commercial???? Not me.'

A two hour concert of Honda Civic sounds? It's an idea, but some people have suggested it's too long at two minutes!

Meawhile in this week's Campaign magazine, we get two contrasting reviews in the "private view' section.

Graham Fink of M&C Saatchi says: 'When I first saw this on TV I had a churning in my stomach. I think it's brilliant. A very original idea and devilishly clever'

But Neil Dawson of TBWA says, 'This latest execution strikes me as self indulgent. The use of a choir to convey the Honda feeling is initially attention grabbing but eventually becomes irritating.'

Our mission is 'to create strong and provocative relationships between good companies and their customers'. If you're trying to be provocative then you have to welcome this kind of debate. But I can't resist pointing out that TBWA is the agency behind the campaign for one of Honda's key competitors: Nissan. You know the one. What do you mean you can't remember any Nissan ads?

As I say, better to be passionately debated than to be ignored.

There are loads more sites hositng similar debates. Here's another.

Civic 'Choir' - it's the new Marmite. You either love it or hate it.

Decide for yourself if you have't seen the ad by watching it at www.wklondon.com..