Nothing you buy will ever break again and Honda makes it hurt

When your products last forever, the only thing that breaks is your customer’s will to buy new stuff. Honda’s new spot from Howatson+Company embraces that curse or milks it for comedy, depending on your view. 

In an elegant inversion of the usual built-to-last cliché, ordinary Australians are cursing machines that stubbornly won’t quit. Not the faulty ones, mind you. A leaf blower that roars back to life after years in the shed, a lawnmower that refuses to retire? Ad Nut has seen acorns with shorter lifespans. 

Honestly, humans deserve Ad Nut's sympathy. Buying something new is one of the last remaining thrills of adulthood. A fresh mower, a shiny leaf blower… the tiny jolts of serotonin. Yet Honda has been denying them that dopamine hit for generations.

“We wanted to have some fun with a very serious product truth. Our customers know Honda products go the distance, so we’re taking that fact and turning it into something distinctively memorable," added Eva Barrett, general manager of brand, marketing, and customer experience at Honda.

The campaign spans TVC, online, OOH, digital, and in-store. The copy has a lovely restraint. The humour is bone-dry, self-aware and wraps up before it stretches. Subtle like a wink than a sales pitch, if you know what Ad Nut means? The final scene, when the neighbour proudly flashes his brand-new Honda mower, unaware he has essentially bought a machine with the lifespan of a cursed heirloom, is the kind of dark comedy Ad Nut treasures. The poor thing will be mowing well into the afterlife.

Ad Nut's verdict: Built to last. Even the joke.

CREDITS

Honda 

General Manager Brand, Marketing, CX: Eva Barrett

Creative Manager: Glenn Gibbins

Marketing Manager: Ben Familton 

Digital Marketing Lead: Ruby Murphy 

Marketing Campaign Specialist: Deana Bazzanella

Howatson+Company Creative

Deputy Chief Creative Officer: Richard Shaw

Senior Art Director: Dan Smith

Senior Copywriter: Ernie Ciaschetti

Senior Designer: Gabriella Dudman

Studio Lead: Simon Merrifield 

Production

Production Company: Rabbit

Director: Aimee-Lee Xu Hsien

Executive Producer; Lucas Jenner 

Executive Producer: Alex Hay

Producer: Morgan Hind 

DOP: Alex Serafini 

Ad Nut is a surprisingly literate woodland creature that for unknown reasons has an unhealthy obsession with advertising. Ad Nut gathers ads from all over Asia and the world for your viewing pleasure, because Ad Nut loves you. You can also check out Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame, or read about Ad Nut's strange obsession with 'murderous beasts'.