Honda Ads Pioneer New Form of Road Music

3 Minute Ad Age, Oct. 30, 2008

Produced by Hoag Levins
Published: October 30, 2008

Honda's ads document how a Civic became a musical instrument.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Inspiration for advertising can come from anywhere but this is probably the first time the lowly highway rumble strip provided any. Honda's new flock of Civic spots document an effort to turn a portion of California road into a data-storage surface and a new car into a musical instrument. It was a rare sort of undertaking that didn't just create new ads but made musical and road engineering history in the process.

3 Comments

By Ryan | Ottawa, ON October 30, 2008 09:26:43 am:

Honda and their 'creative agency' are not the ones to be credited with this innovation. Over a year ago Reuters reported on the "Singing Roads" of Japan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTsoP3WWgU4&feature=related

And if you dig a little deeper you'll find that this wasn't the first of it's kind. Here's a Wikipedia entry outlining who came up with what and when.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_road

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By STUART | IRVINE, CA October 30, 2008 10:37:24 am:

"...a rare sort of undertaking that didn't just create new ads but made musical and road engineering history in the process."

Great spoof guys. Sort of like "This is Spinal Tap" for the ad world. Hilarious! The clip of them sitting around the conference table "coming up with the idea" was priceless.

Pioneer? There are several "musical roads" around the world. Surely the folks at RPA have access to the Internet?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTsoP3WWgU4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_road

Keep 'em coming!

Stuart
Laguna Beach, CA

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By Max | Venice, CA October 30, 2008 02:26:41 pm:

that's just awesome!

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