Responses by Jean-François Bouchet, copywriter, DDB Paris

Background: Usually, for motorcycle riders and bike dealers, spring marks the beginning of a new season. But this year, nearly half of humanity is currently locked-in because of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. In France, since President Emmanuel Macron enforced safety measures at a national level on March 17, 2020, Honda dealers have not been able to see a single client. On the other hand, it was not about talking for the sake of it, nor selling anything. The aim of the social media campaign was not to talk about pandemic or sell anything; it was just to empathize with riders and to keep in touch with them in these difficult times.

Reasoning: The past few weeks have been hard not only for sick people and their families, but also for everyone else, because living in a full lockdown is not easy. While virtual technology and social networks help a lot, it has become quite obvious that they cannot compare to real life. And if you are addicted to the road, like riders, it is even tougher. This is how the idea was born. We just wanted riders to know that the brand knew perfectly how they feel these days. The whole campaign is focused on one issue: how does it feel to be forced to stay at home when your body and mind are craving for hitting the road?

Challenges: Well, we could say the coronavirus. We did not want to put anyone’s life at risk for an advertising campaign. So everything was made at home, within a few days. Emmanuel Courteau, the art director, worked on a lot of the images in Adobe Photoshop, after taking a lot of time to select the images from Getty Images. The only Honda bike you can see—that was taken at night—was an exception: it was his neighbor’s bike. Emmanuel shot it at the right angle, at the right time of the day, while being more than two meters away from his neighbor, and then used Photoshop to integrate it in the stock image.

Favorite details: The fact that we have avoided any sordid expediency. The campaign is not trying to pay a tribute to the nursing staff in order to promote the brand or the agency. It is not even talking about the virus.

Anything new: We learned a lot about ourselves, about the way human beings deal with a sudden lack of freedom and about advertising at a time of crisis. Such a situation is totally unprecedented in the history of mankind.

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