This Amazing ‘Double-Sided’ Video Tells The Story Of Two Honda Civics

To introduce the new Honda Civic Type R, a souped-up version of the car maker’s Civic hatchback, Wieden + Kennedy London created The Other Side, a “double-sided” film that tells two different stories about the same man driving the the regular Civic versus the Type R in two very different scenarios…at the same time. Get it?

The agency filmed two separate videos, each telling the story of a man who is father by day and undercover cop by night. Both video play at the same time and the viewer can press and hold the “R” button to seamlessly switch between the two videos.

In one, we see the father picking his daughter up from school in his white Civic and take her to a surprise party. In the second video, we see dad as undercover cop infiltrating a crew of thieves on a police sting…while driving the all-new Type R.

The video is best viewed right here on YouTube. The “R” thing won’t work in an embed. But here’s a sample where we’ve gone back and forth for a small part of it:

Here’s another side-by-side picture, where in one version, you have kids rushing out of a garage heading to a party, while in the other, police are rushing out to make arrests:

Explaining the approach, W+K writes on its blog, “We wanted people to feel Honda’s other side as well as see it, so we dreamt up a technique that brings together both narratives through a simple interaction. It’s a dramatic, heart-racing rush, a big gear shift between stories echoing the high octane rush of pressing the new Type R’s ‘R’ button to activate ‘Race Mode’.”

And therein lies the work’s beauty. The viewer gets to experience, virtually, what happens, in reality, when one drives the new Type R. Isn’t that where the brilliance of all advertising lies? Transporting the consumer in a way that allows them to truly experience the benefits of owning the advertised product?

Now, not that everyone leads a double life like our dad does in this story but therein lines the other brilliance of this work; allowing the viewer to put their imagination to work in a way that squarely places them in a situation where they can say, “Yea, I can see myself racing around in a really cool car at night rounding up a bunch of criminals unbeknownst to my beautiful, innocent daughter who I love and adore and enjoy driving to parties much more than I do catching criminals.”

Wieden + Kennedy worked with Cannes-winning director Daniel Wolfe and A Prophet actor Jean-Phillipe Ricci.

The work was launched at a press event October 29 in an art gallery space at which press and influencers were invited to initially view the work.