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Cog (advertisement)

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File:The Cog television commercial screenshot.png
The Cog

The Cog television commercial was a dramatic commercial for the Honda Accord, made (almost completely) without any CGI or trick photography.

The two-minute commercial appears as a single, long camera pan (although it is in fact two stitched together because the contraption wouldn't fit in a room: the join is at the moment where the exhaust pipe rolls across the floor) along a Heath Robinson/Rube Goldberg-like arrangement of parts from the car. The commercial took 606 different takes to complete.

The sequence starts with a transmission bearing rolling into a synchro hub. This sets off a cascade of movement; windscreen wipers 'walk' across the floor, valve stems roll down a bonnet and carefully weighted tires roll uphill. The commercial ends when the central locking on a complete Accord is triggered, causing the tailgate to close, tipping the car off a balanced trailer and into a final pose in front of the camera.The voice of US author Garrison Keillor announces "Isn't it nice when things just work?", while the song "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang plays in the background.

The version of the advertisement that originally aired in Australia had an alternate ending that replaces the keyless-entry remote with a seatbelt retractor, which retracts toward the car and allows it to roll forward instead of the tailgate offsetting the balancing of the ramp. (This version of the ad began at the point where the exhaust muffler rolls across the floor.)

Some have expressed doubt about whether the ad was genuinely created without the use of special effects, citing anomalies such as the tires rolling upwards (though this can be achieved using counterweights inside the tires), and because reflective surfaces in the ad do not reveal reflections of any camera equipment.

According to Snopes, "in May 2003, filmmakers Peter Fischli and David Weiss threatened legal action against Honda over similarities between the "Cog" commercial and "The Way Things Go," a 30-minute film they produced in 1987 involving "100 feet of physical interactions, chemical reactions, and precisely crafted chaos worthy of Rube Goldberg or Alfred Hitchcock.""

Parodies & Tributes

A parody of this advert was recently created by the BBC to promote sport on the BBC Local Radio, by using bits found in a football locker room. It finalizes with a kick of a football into a goal.

Others to parody the popular commercial include The Number, a directory enquiries service.

A video of similar concept using various pieces of sports equipment was made by New Zealander, Evan Yates as the winning entry to a competition hosted by local television programme, Sportscafe. Sponsored by vodafone, the Best Sporting Trick competition prize was a trip to the UK to meet English footballer, David Beckham.

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