Stop-Motion Animator (And Academy Award Nominee) PES Directs Branded Video For

The focus on paper and illustration is a clever way to make us appreciate what engineers and manufacturers do: bring ideas on paper to life. Honda’s new ad follows the company’s path through history in stop-motion/flip-book style with thousands of hand-drawn illustrations.

Adam Pesapane, the stop-motion animator known simply as PES, has made a mark with independent productions that re-purpose household objects in inventive new ways. Tom Peyton, assistant VP of marketing for American Honda said, in a statement, that the video is a meta-textual: a statement in itself of Honda’s innovative ideas.

Using only actual paper and an armada of illustrators and animators, the ad details the evolution of Honda, and is shot entirely in-camera. It opens with founder Soichiro Honda’s use of a radio generator to power his wife’s bicycle, and the story continues with Honda’s development of motorcycles including a nod to winning Isle of Man TT races (1961-1967), seguing to outboard motors and then to the first CVCC vehicle. It also moves through multiple generations of the Civic and Accord, to F1 and Indy racing to… a lawn mower!… then on to the development of robotics and jets.

Honda will support the ad digitally with an interactive version that allows viewers to click on each product to reveal its “history and significance to Honda”, according to a statement.

The marketer will tout the spot on social media, including teaser clips on Instagram and Vine.