In 2003, Honda dropped the mic with a two-minute TV spot that captivated viewers and made marketing execs everywhere acknowledge the impossibly simple, quietly complex, triumphantly spellbinding commercial.

The ad, titled “The Cog,” used actual Honda Accord parts to build a mesmerizing chain reaction. Think Rube Goldberg machine, but engineered with surgical precision and not a pixel of CGI in sight.

Every sprocket, wiper, spring, and door panel played a role in the intricate sequence, all leading to a full Accord gliding into view with the line, “Isn’t it nice when things just work?”

It took 605 takes to get “The Cog,” Honda’s iconic Accord commercial, shot right

That’s not a typo. Honda and Wieden+Kennedy London insisted on mechanical perfection. No digital fakery, just raw precision and persistence. The end result was pure magic. 

Directed by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, the ad aired only 10 times in full but exploded online, picking up over 12 million views at a time when viral videos were still passed around on email threads.

Beyond the technical feat, “The Cog” changed how car ads could look and feel. It was elegant, patient, and universally understood without a single spoken word until the final tagline. It won nearly every major advertising award, boosted UK sales by 28%, and helped rake in more than $446 million in revenue, Media Shower shared.

Most importantly, it did what every ad dreams of doing. It helped people fall in love with a product because of the way its parts moved…when they weren’t even using it. Two decades later, “The Cog” is still a gold standard in automotive advertising: precision in motion that made marketing history.