Everyone loves a good optical illusion – that immediate shock at what you just saw and that feeling of satisfaction when your brain catches up to figure it out. The recent boom of 3D street art like that we saw from China recently has pushed illusions to a new level.

This sense of amazement has been harnessed and crammed into a one-minute commercial for Honda’s new mid-sized SUV, the CR-V. Having been put up on 17 October it’s been well received by viewers who call the ad “Awesome” and the “Best car commercial ever!”

Honda has been known to put out some clever spots before, so this shouldn’t disappoint. Let’s take a look.

The video’s concept is “An Impossible Made Possible” and features rapid-fire illusions usually along with their reveals. Starting off, we have some guys jumping around pillars over a pit…

a CR-V seemingly about to drive into some concrete pillars…

a lady blowing her toy car and man off the table…

a man about to walk into a statue…

a CR-V driving through some archways inside-out…

a giant exiting the building and shrinking to fit in the car…

a levitating man and CR-V…

and finally, a logo pieced together from six separated stands.

Viewers left comments expressing their marvel at the multiple illusions saying things like “My head hurts”; “Very creative commercial!”; and “Specs look promising on paper. Diesels need gutsy torque and it’s a wonder Honda simply didn’t give this unit another 150cc.”

…

Oh riiiight, this was an ad about a car, wasn’t it!? Most people probably walk away from a commercial like this not remembering what the actual product was. However, to Honda’s benefit it does demand multiple views, giving people repeated exposure to the name. So by around the fifth time watching you probably will have picked up at least the name CV-R…or something.

Nevertheless, Honda has yet again put together a highly entertaining advertisement and we look forward to what they’ll come up with next.

Videos: YouTube – HondaVideo 1, 2

▼ Here’s a making of video to show the work that went into the commercial lest anyone think there was CGI trickery involved.


[ Read in Japanese ]