English RA Honda Accord Wagon ad

The add that i am analyzing is made by Honda. And it is on you tube. I recommend that you watch it before you read the rest so that it makes more sense. You can locate the TV spot at this link. I am not sure how to link a video off of you tube.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=g2VCfOC69jc

Summery: (if you are un able to get the link to work) There is a long array of domino style cause and effect one stage barely having the momentum to lead to the next phase. So you are left rooting for each stage to "go all the way". Each of the dominoes if you will were made of car parts supposable y from a Honda Accord. the video ends with a button on the remote for a Honda accord wagon style car. And it closing the back hatch and rolling down for the climax of an accord sign showing. And the words at the end are "arnt you glad when things just work"

Target audience:
The upper middle class consumer who is in the market for a new 4 door sedan. From the video it shows the drivers seat on the right side and the voice is in English so I believe that it is in England or some English speaking country other than America. The target is someone who probably lives in a less rural more city environment because they tend to gravite more towards trucks and larger vehicles. It is catering to people who are probably younger because older people are more likely to go and get a Audi, BMW, Lexus, or Mercedes, something a little fancier for their retirement. It is interesting that they chose to show a wagon style vehicle because they are less common than a normal sedan. Wagons are almost like pre minivans so i believe that this add is targeting women ages18-3 kids. And they don't like to work on cars. ie they like to have thier cars "just work".

Logos: The appeal to logic is that if they have such small tolerances as to make this large multi step process just barely work then they know just what to do design precision and predictability. Which translates to a car who "only has to drive" will be more than capable of handling. doing something as simple as driving.

Pathos: This add plays on pathos or the emotions by providing a series of seemingly 50% 50% chances for the domino effect to fail. But Human nature is to root for the underdog and hope that it works so that we can see which step will be next. And in every situation the Honda engineers come through and it works perfectly. This creates an emotional bond with the viewer which at the end says we won this car really works and you are on my team

Ethos: I guess the creditability of the add comes down to the creativity in the dominoes pieces, the fact that there are actual car parts used. And I guess they made thier own parts, all of the parts look like that they are shiny and in good shape. The tolerances in each stage are very tight and precise. All of these things make the auto dealer seem creditable

Is the ad effective? I would say that it is for the most part. I am not in the target audince because I am a little more technical and can tell that this spot was not done in real life it was done on the computer, and that there are some rather simple Newtonian physics laws that are violated namely the conservation of energy. But for the target audience of women 18 to 3 kids I think that it is a very effective add because it makes me want to get a Honda for their reliability and their longevity. So I think that it is effective.