UK Observer: Honda heads for a hit with the hate song that everybody loves
It is an advert like no other. 'Can hate be good? Can hate be something we don't hate?' says the mystifying animated song. And if you haven't found yourself humming the chorus - 'Hate something, change something, make something better' - you will probably have heard someone who was. Now the unnervingly catchy tune behind the television and radio campaign promoting Honda's new diesel engine, which stars the gravelly voice of best-selling American author Garrison Keillor, is poised to become a hit record. Weiden and Kennedy, the award-winning London advertising agency...realises it has a potential chart-climbing novelty pop song on its hands.
...Honda has been inundated with questions about it. The ad agency has also received wide ranging responses, including a phone call from a drug rehabilitation centre which wanted to use the song's positive philosophy in therapy sessions.
The new ad, referred to inside the agency as 'Grr' because Keillor introduces the song as 'sung in the key of Grr', was intended to reflect Honda's questioning 'tone of voice', according to staff at Weiden and Kennedy. Keillor was amused by the scripts he was sent, and agreed to take part.
Click through from http://www.honda.co.uk/ to listen.