Andretti Honda TV ad

[Lizzerd]

There was just a TV ad for Honda on Speed Channel during Wind Tunnel. Mikey the Traitor is giving some kid driving lessons. "Turn left here"... "Take another left here"... "Turn left here"... ad nauseum. The kid asks, "Can't we take a right turn somewhere?" Mikey says, with a bewildered look on his face, "why would you want to do that?"

It just infuriates me that that frigging Traitor can can be that frigging blatant about trashing the series that Made Him.

Makes me wanna puke even more when ever I see that little weasle now.

[Chief]

Fret no more. He's a retired weasel and the average Joe is so open wheel confused they probably think he's still in CART. :gomer:

[nrc]

It's just like everything else - Honda writes the checks and Mikey does as he's told.

[FRANKY]

Originally posted by Lizzerd
There was just a TV ad for Honda on Speed Channel during Wind Tunnel. Mikey the Traitor is giving some kid driving lessons. "Turn left here"... "Take another left here"... "Turn left here"... ad nauseum. The kid asks, "Can't we take a right turn somewhere?" Mikey says, with a bewildered look on his face, "why would you want to do that?"

It just infuriates me that that frigging Traitor can can be that frigging blatant about trashing the series that Made Him.

Makes me wanna puke even more when ever I see that little weasle now.

Humor must not be your strong suit.

[Kiwifan]

I've never met Lizzerd so I don't know about his humor but I reckon I could vouch for his principles. Remember, even if someone is paying the bills, you can still say 'no'. ;)

Rusty.

[Lizzerd]

Thank you, Rusty.

I've been trying to think of an appropriate response to FRANKY, but the phrases have escaped me.

FRANKY, your last name wouldn't be Ratliff, would it?

[RobGuru]

Having met Lizzerd twice (albeit briefly both times), I believe that he does have a sense of humor, but I also believe his passions for C^RT and against the EARL overwhelm his humor - sometimes... ;)

FWIW... I share his opinion!

[FRANKY]

Originally posted by Lizzerd
Thank you, Rusty.

I've been trying to think of an appropriate response to FRANKY, but the phrases have escaped me.

FRANKY, your last name wouldn't be Ratliff, would it?

Oh God no. Never thought of parachute boy when I picked this handle.

It was a funny commercial, Honda was laughing at themselves. Besides, who in their right mind would buy a Honda 2000 and just turn left? (Besides Michael ;) )

[DjDrOmusic]

I can vouch for Lizzerds sense of humor, as well as my own, and I find the commercial as repulsive as he does. I suppose as long as the checks from Honda keep cashing he'll keep banging his out of tune drum on the Kool Aid trail.

[RaceChic]

Originally posted by DjDrOmusic
I can vouch for Lizzerds sense of humor, as well as my own, and I find the commercial as repulsive as he does. I suppose as long as the checks from Honda keep cashing he'll keep banging his out of tune drum on the Kool Aid trail.

Ditto. Lizzerd is a hilarious person to be around. I'm sure, Franky, that the commercial would be funny to the lemmings or the general public that have some understanding of racing enough to get the underlying humour, but I, however, have the complete inability to laugh at the commercial. Like the man never drove right in a race his entire career, right??? :saywhat:
If open wheel wasn't in the state that it is thanks to the idiot grandson (thanks Tony) then, and only then, would I be able to see humour in this commercial. Not now. :flame: :flame: :flame:

[FRANKY]

OK I'll except the minority award on this one. But I'll pass along a thumbs up to Honda marketing. I don't remember any other race driver ad for Toyota or Chevy, Ford. This one sticks out, which is what Michael uh... make that Honda wants.

[Jag_Warrior]

I tell ya what would be funny. If we could get a commercial showing Soichiro spinning in his grave... at about 18,000 RPM's. Now that would be comedy!

The company that Dan Davis once described as being most like Ferrari (a motorsports company that just happened to build road cars) is now best known for its bling-bling potential among teen-angst driven slackers. I like the commercial, as I think it captures the irony of Honda's current status in motorsports. All that's missing is Mikey needs some 7-11 nachos in his lap, as they turn the bass up and bob their heads to the bass.

Maybe a few thousand people "get" that turn left commercial, and it probably cost them chump change. But tens of millions have seen them oil down grand prix tracks around the world, over the past couple of years. That pretty sight only cost them around $300 million.

I agree with Eddie Jordan: this is a very different Honda than what we came to know in the 80's and 90's.

[Kate]

Well they wouldn't want to use the BAR Honda Grenade-O-Mats in advertising, I guess.

While I don't like Mikey, I did think the commercial is mildly funny.

[Napoleon]

Last night I saw an entirely differant Mikey/Honda ad on the History Channel.

[cart7]

originally posted by Jag_Warrior
Maybe a few thousand people "get" that turn left commercial, and it probably cost them chump change.
Exactly, most average Joe sports fans or casual fans won't get the punch line. It's almost like the commercial was intended to Pizz off internet forum posters. ;)

[Jag_Warrior]

Originally posted by cart7
Exactly, most average Joe sports fans or casual fans won't get the punch line. It's almost like the commercial was intended to Pizz off internet forum posters. ;)

Actually I think that you may be right. OK, I know I'm warped, but try this if you can. Tape the Honda/Left Turn Only IRL commercial. When you replay it, play the O'Jays "For The Love Of Money". I've got the commercial saved to disk and I edited it with that song as the audio overplay.

For the love of money
People will lie, Lord, they will cheat
For the love of money
People don't care who they hurt or beat
For the love of money
A woman will sell her precious body
For a small piece of paper it carries a lot of weight
Call it lean, mean, mean green

Almighty dollar

I know money is the root of all evil
Do funny things to some people
Give me a nickel, brother can you spare a dime
Money can drive some people out of their minds
All for the love of money

Don't let, don't let, don't let money rule you
For the love of money
Money can change people sometimes
Don't let, don't let, don't let money fool you
Money can fool people sometimes
People! Don't let money, don't let money change you,
it will keep on changing, changing up your mind.




Do you think the Honda boys would be upset if I sent them a lil gift on CD? See, I've got a sense of humor too. :laugh:

[Jag_Warrior]

Originally posted by Napoleon
Last night I saw an entirely differant Mikey/Honda ad on the History Channel.

The one where they're standing around the garage, looking at their Mercedes/Ilmor "Honda" engine, and the over-stacked silly-coned girl walks by and the little light bulbs go off over their heads?

At worst, some would argue that it's sexist. At best, it just demonstrates that they're fresh out of ideas.

Poor morons. They should have slid a turbo on a 4 cylinder and gone ALMS racing this year in LMP675. I hear Toyota is no longer an "old people's car" in Japan and is stealing away Honda's youth market. They're still popular with the bling-blingers, but someone tell me what IRL racing does for this company... since that's the only major racing presence they have in this country???

[GOFAST1]

Now that explains the 1993 F-1 season.

[Sean O'Gorman]

Originally posted by Jag_Warrior
Poor morons. They should have slid a turbo on a 4 cylinder and gone ALMS racing this year in LMP675.

Why? So they could get all that exposure from a series that doesn't race from mid-March to late June?

[Jag_Warrior]

Oh, well now... good one. ;)

Yeah, but I don't think that was exactly the plan for this season. I'm not happy about it, but *****e happens. They'd have gotten the same U.S. network ratings as they're getting with the IRL. And since Honda's become the rolling/exploding joke of F1... they may have been able to redeem themselves among the Euros with a class ("class"... get it, Mikey, CLASS? :laugh: ) win at Le Mans. You know, Le Mans? The race that matters... much like Indy, except it's not the butt of jokes throughout the racing world. See, the car that wins Le Mans is actually talked about for years to come... kinda like USED to be the case with Indy.

Audi pointed to its ALMS and Le Mans success as major contribitors to its spike in North American sales... same with BMW when they ran the LMR's and the GTR's.

Head-bobbing slackers and skater-boys, with rings in their noses, probably can't keep pushing the current Honda sales fad forever. And even with that, Toyota is recording significantly higher sales gains in North America than Honda... and gaining sharply among the youth market. Since Toyota is much larger and seems to have a decent marketing plan in place (use NASCAR to attract the "every man"), I'm just suggesting that Honda could/should have found a niche where the Japanese have traditionally not done very well at all: Le Mans.

[RaceChic]

Part Two of This Commercial........ (http://www.trackforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=28867) :rolleyes: