A California man’s homemade commercial for his girlfriend’s used 1996 Honda Accord has now been viewed millions of times online.
The ad features aerial views of the 21-year-old sedan gliding along a snaking highway, with text noting the car’s 141,095 miles and a voice-over that wouldn’t sound out-of-place in a high-budget luxury vehicle ad.
“You. You’re different. You do things your way,” the narrator starts off.
“You don’t care about money. You have everything you’ve ever wanted. You don’t do it for appearances. You do it because it works,” the script goes on. “And this? This is not a car. This is you. It’s a lifestyle. A choice. Your choice.”
Max Lanman tells CTV News Channel he had the idea for the ad last year while driving up to Big Sur. He says he figured it would just be fun.
It was shot last year over two days using a drone. After that came months of hard work in post-production.
Lanman says his goal is to get his girlfriend at least the US$1,500 the car would typically fetch.
“I make commercials for a living so my goal was just to beat that price,” he said. “I would see that as a win in terms of my advertising skills.”
After putting the ad on YouTube and then sharing it on the website Reddit, bids on the car starting taking off on the auctioning site eBay. Lanman says bidding hit US$150,000 when someone at eBay decided to cancel the auction. It was relisted and, as of Wednesday evening, the bidding has hit a more modest US$5,100.
Lanman says the online reaction to the ad has been overwhelmingly positive.
“I think people can really connect to driving a used car,” he said. “I myself have never not driven a used car.”
