Cog
Honda's “Cog” (Accord, 2003) is the kind of commercial people remember like a short film: hypnotic, mechanical, and weirdly emotional—without a single “buy now” moment. Its TellyAds Hero Score lands in true classic territory. Our Hero Score combines engagement, emotional resonance, brand integration, and messaging clarity into one effectiveness metric—built from hundreds of signals (see our methodology page).
The Three-Part Outcome: Hero vs Echo vs Pulse
This is the rare profile where Echo Score (our brand memorability metric) does the heavy lifting while Pulse Score (response potential) stays intentionally quiet. Translation: it’s engineered to be replayed and talked about, not to shove you into a dealership this weekend.
Most Important Finding
“Cog” earns attention first—and only then “earns” the brand moment. The logo barely shows up, but the idea is so singular that the ending doesn’t feel like an interruption; it feels like a label being stamped onto a memory. That’s delayed branding done right: less exposure, more ownership.
“Isn’t it nice, when things just, work?”
— Honda “Cog” (2003)That voiceover arrives late and does something brilliant: it retroactively converts two minutes of engineering spectacle into one simple belief. In TellyAds copy scoring terms, it’s high-simplicity, high-universal-truth—an ending that doesn’t explain the ad so much as seal it.