AllThingsD » Honda

Viral Video: Bueller … Bueller (No, Really!)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:21:48 +0000

This is a really clever mashup by AkooTV of the new “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” Honda ad played during the Super Bowl and the 1986 movie, both starring Matthew Broderick, in a side-by-side comparison.

Well done:

Ferris Bueller Is Back, and He's Driving a Honda Mom-Wagon (Video)

Lauren Goode — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:27:38 +0000

The Honda 2012 CR-V isn’t quite the same vehicle as the 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California. But Matthew Broderick — a.k.a. Ferris Bueller — is bringing back his high-school-truant charm in a Super Bowl ad for the car company.

The commercial was originally supposed to be kept under wraps until game day, but Gawker Media’s car blog, Jalopnik, spoiled the surprise last Friday. Honda put the full ad on YouTube early this morning. Jalopnik says Honda hired “The Hangover” writer/director Todd Phillips to create it.

In the spot, Broderick reprises his role from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” calling in sick from work in Los Angeles, instead of from high school in Chicago. Instead of crooning a karaoke version of “Danke Schoen” during a parade, this time Broderick gets caught up in a Chinese New Year parade. His CR-V is taken for a joy ride, not by garage attendants, but by a valet parker at a posh restaurant.

Here’s the spot, for those of you that would rather just watch it. Maybe … nine times?

Social Media Warfare by Nissan as Also-Ran Looks to Win

Michael Ramsey — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:00:23 +0000

Nissan Motor Co. has long been the also-ran of the J3 here in the U.S., an image that it is trying furiously to dislodge. Indeed, they have said a driving motivation behind the introduction of the Nissan Leaf electric car was to take the lead in something.

Having gained market share on Toyota Motor Corp. and being not far from passing Honda Motor Co. in the U.S. in sales, the scrappy underdog is turning a bit more into the playground bully.

Case in point: Toyota was going for the maximum splash in revealing its new Camry today at locations in Los Angeles, Dearborn, Mich., Georgetown, Ky. and New York. And they promoted they would show the vehicle early through Twitter. Too bad Nissan had purchased the top search term “Camry” for Twitter and when you search for that word, the first tweet that appears is something from the Nissan twitter feed.

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Mission Motors Closes a Round of Funding (And Swears It Won't Blow It All on Awesome Electric Motorcycles)

Drake Martinet — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:31:10 +0000

San Francisco-based Mission Motors holds a land speed record for an electric motorcycle and, as of this week, also holds a $9.3 million Series B round of funding to commercialize that bike — or at least parts of it.

Sadly, CEO Jit Bhattacharya informed me his company won’t be using the cash to make more of its achingly fast electric motorcycles.

But, even if the bike remains a rarity, the funding is real enough.

The round, led by Warburg Pincus, also includes a hefty line of credit to the company — a provision that makes sense when you realize how capital intensive the real next step will be.

That’s because Mission Motors is moving to become a supplier of electrical drive systems to vehicle makers — “OEMs” in industry speak.

Specifically, it is “looking at [applications] where size and weight are a factor,” said Bhattacharya.

So what does that mean exactly?

An electric drive system, at its most basic, is made up of three components: Batteries to store power, a motor to convert the electricity to physical motion and a speed controller that governs how fast it all happens.

Mission Motors isn’t doing game-changing battery research. Nor is it inventing a fundamentally new kind of motor.

In essence, Mission’s team is not unlike an uber-geeky group of high school car nuts — spending time and money trying to squeeze a little more performance out of a bunch of off-the-shelf parts.

This game of inches gets especially important when you are trying to shoehorn an electric drive system into tiny places.

Bhattacharya mentioned applications like small hybrids, where designers must fit an internal combustion engine, an electric motor and a battery package in the same car.

“If you drop the weight of the components, you basically improve the range,” he said.

So, where will we see a Mission Motors power system next?

Bhattacharya wouldn’t say, although the company has already worked with Honda on prototype cars.

All I could get from the CEO, after much badgering, was, “Our focus is on building compact systems that could go into all kinds of applications.”

In any case, I stopped by Mission Motors’ new office in SOMA to see if I could ride its record-setting, electric pavement monster and at least I got a video:

[ See post to watch video ]

Millions of Honda Owners Victims of Yet Another Data Breach

Arik Hesseldahl — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 18:25:38 +0000

Carmaker Honda is warning more than two million of its customers in the U.S. that an email database containing some of their personal information has been stolen.

It’s not yet 100 percent clear if this breach is connected to the recent breach of the email marketing firm Silverpop Systems, but it sure looks that way. Honda was an enthusiastic Silverpop customer as recently as 2009, according to this press release. It’s the same company whose data was breached in thefts of customer data from McDonald’s and deviantArt. A similar incident was reported concerning the drugstore chain Walgreen’s, but it hasn’t been tied specifically to Silverpop.

The list contained the names, login names, email addresses and–get this–vehicle identification numbers of more than two million Honda owners. Another list, this one containing only the email addresses of nearly three million Acura owners, was also taken.

Honda has contacted all the customers via email. The worry is that affected owners, especially those on the list with the VINs, may be targeted for some kind of phishing attack. Imagine getting an email from someone pretending to be your local Honda dealer who correctly identifies the car you just bought and asks you to give up more personal information so that you can get “special offers.”

Brands Friending Social Gaming Amid New Web Craze

Suzanne Vranica — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 12:00:35 +0000

Honda Motors Co. (HMC) and McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) are making a push into social gaming to promote their brands, as Madison Avenue begins to take notice of the latest Web craze that is drawing growing numbers of people to games on social networks.

Honda is kicking off a campaign Aug. 23 for its new sporty hybrid CR-Z on “Car Town,” a recently launched social game on Facebook aimed at car enthusiasts. The game is from Cie Games, a company that is backed in part by Rick Thompson, the co-founder of Playdom Inc.

McDonald’s, meanwhile, has signed an ad deal with “Farmville,” the hit farming game on Facebook from Zynga Game Network Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. A spokeswoman for the fast-food company says it is in discussions with Zynga but declined to provide details.

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Losing Your Media Job? Blame the Car Companies and Their Shrinking Ad Budgets

Peter Kafka — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:23:25 +0000

Looking for a place to focus your frustration after getting pink-slipped from your media job? Try blaming the American consumer for not buying more cars in the last year. And car companies for spending less to convince them.

Car companies cut their ad spending by 10 percent, to $6.1 billion, through the first half of the year, according to Nielsen’s ad tracking service. That confirms anecdotal evidence media companies have been offering up throughout the year, and it means that the numbers for the second half of the year–when the economy really collapsed–are going to be brutal.

Which goes a long way toward explaining why everyone–from Time Warner’s Time Inc. (TWX) to GE’s (GE) NBC to every Web start-up you can think of–is looking at dwindling ad revenue for the foreseeable future.

And yes, you can point your finger most accusingly at Detroit, if that makes you feel better: While some imports, like Toyota (TM) and Honda (HMC), actually kept spending steady or increased it, the formerly Big 3 all made big cuts. General Motors (GM), the country’s biggest auto ad buyer, dropped spending six percent; Ford (F) and Chrysler dropped 22 percent each.

MediaPost has the full gory details.

[Image Credit: Hauke Sandhaus]