New 2018 Honda Odyssey Commercial: Your Kids Are Awful, We Have A Solution

Timothy Cain
by Timothy Cain

They’re monsters, fighting over a squeezable toy bus before the journey has even begun. They’re inattentive rascals, wearing headphones and tuning out their parents before Mom is even in the van. They’re instigators and agitators, wholly dependent upon parents to keep the peace.

Or are they? Are children really so bad that Honda’s very first marketing campaign for the fifth-generation 2018 Odyssey has to present a negative slant on the life of a parent?

Maybe not. But in an age in which conflict is fostered during live news coverage all day long, in which children are perpetually entertained so they don’t need to entertain themselves, in which there’s not enough time before Zoey’s pottery class and Aiden’s play date to source a conventional resolution, Honda’s Magic Slide seats produce a brilliantly eye-catching commercial, with a little help from animation.

Of course, my kids would never tussle like this.

Timothy Cain
Timothy Cain

More by Timothy Cain

Comments
Join the conversation
7 of 13 comments
  • Bikegoesbaa Bikegoesbaa on Jun 16, 2017

    Yikes. Ads like this make me happy that I don't have to deal with kid-related things. I'm always astonished how big of a deal fitting/transporting children is and how much it impacts car choices, but when people with kids explain it I can see how that all makes sense. For example, obviously it's easier to change a diaper in the rain on the waist-height flat floor of an SUV or van with the liftgate keeping the water off than to struggle with the same task in the backseat of a sedan. But until my kid-having sister explained that to me it never registered.

  • Caboose Caboose on Jun 16, 2017

    We'll be buying our first minivan later this year, when the next baby's arrival forces us out of our sedan. It'll likely be the Odyssey. The only serious question left around our kitchen table is which trim level. Regarding the top-trim Elite, I hate hate hate the idea of in-cabin entertainment. But I love love love ventilated seats and the Elite is the only way to get them. If I can get over not having ventilated seats in July in the South, then we'll probably go for an EX or EX-L. Cabin PA system so the kids in the way-back will hear me? Please. I'm a daddy; I can raise my voice to reach all the way back there. And as far as my kids are concerned, the wrath of God rides on my very breath. The one thing Honda eliminated from the '18 Odyssey was the last gen's ability to remove the front center console. We had hoped to take out both the console and the middle-middle seat, creating an aisle that would allow Mom to walk back and distribute justice as necessary. Alas!

    • See 2 previous
    • La834 La834 on Jun 16, 2017

      That feature was great for carrying surfboards inside the van too. Does the Sienna still have a folding and/or removable front console?

  • Brn Brn on Jun 16, 2017

    The only redeeming quality I saw in either of the commercials was the vacuum. $120 will buy a sweet vacuum for any car.

  • WildcatMatt WildcatMatt on Jun 29, 2017

    An interesting sidenote to all this from a marketing perspective has been watching the "sponsorship" messages on Disney Junior. Chrysler has been running spots for the Pacifica for almost a year now and Honda has been tripping over itself trying to pick up the slack, to the point of running a voice-over on top of a static picture of the new Odyssey until they had an actual spot ready.

Next