CIVIC | Everyday | 2004
Looking at Familiar Things from an Unfamiliar Angle / Honda Civic "Everyday"
In 2003, Honda poured about 600 million yen into a single campaign, running three commercials at once. "Everyday" was the youngest of those three siblings.
The problem
The previous year's "Cog" was a wild stunt that built a Rube Goldberg machine entirely out of Honda Accord parts, becoming a worldwide talking point. Building on that success, Wieden+Kennedy London created "Sense" and "Everyday" as companion films within the same campaign.
The insight
If "Cog" took apart a machine—the car itself—"Everyday" takes apart everyday household objects. The idea is that even things we think we know well can show a completely different face when you look at them from a different angle. That discovery mapped perfectly onto the Civic's character as a car built purely for practicality.
The idea
Household objects appear one after another from strange, unfamiliar angles, revealing shapes and mechanisms we never normally notice. Building on that momentum, the ad smoothly arrives at the Civic's own rational design. And right at the end, there's a playful, even slightly cheeky punchline waiting.
What happened
The film won Gold in the Film category at Cannes Lions 2004. That same year, "Cog" became the most awarded TV commercial in the world, and "Everyday" ranked fourth worldwide. Honda was named Advertiser of the Year by Campaign magazine, and Wieden+Kennedy London became the world's second most-awarded agency.
Afterthought
It tends to live in the shadow of "Cog," but it carries the very same philosophy. Machines, household objects—look closely at anything and it gets interesting. It's a nice reminder that advertising, at its core, is really a job about changing how we look at things.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2004
