The Ever So Nice Jazz (lost behind-the-scenes video for series of animated Honda Jazz commercials, 2005)
A still taken from one of the "Ever So Nice Jazz" series of Australian commercials, made to advertise the Honda Jazz.
Status: Lost
The Ever So Nice Jazz is the name given to a series of Australian-produced commercials from 2005 to 2007 created by animation company Anifex to promote the new (at the time) Honda Jazz. The commercials seemed to parody the popular children's TV show Thomas the Tank Engine, with talking vehicles (this time being cars rather than trains) that swap between still facial expressions and a narrator who parodies the iconic narration style of Ringo Starr from the show's earlier seasons (provided in the advert by Tony Robinson of Blackadder fame). According to comments by YouTube user Bulgy13, the commercials had a behind-the-scenes video showing how they were made, which contained a full uncut version of the song heard in the adverts. Bulgy13 recorded the instrumental cut of the song, but the video was sourced from is now seemingly lost.
Research
On the 27th of December 2023, YouTuber TheMonarchy messaged Anifex on Facebook Messenger inquiring about the behind-the-scenes video. On the 2nd of January 2024, he received this response, likely from Anifex founder Michael Cusack, as he seems to run the account:
"There is a behind-the-scenes video, but unfortunately, we do not have the copyright clearances. It was only supposed to be for internal use, and so we never asked for the clearances we would need to show people outside of Anifex and Honda. I don't know about a cut featuring the original soundtrack from the commercial, but if one does exist, then we are not the ones who did it."
This seems to imply that the scenes video was created by Honda, as Michael does not have permission to share it.
Later, TheMonarchy emailed a company named KOJO, who merged with another company called Oasis Post that assisted in making the commercial. The person who replied to Monarchy’s email managed to get in contact with Richard Chataway after some back and forth discussion, eventually leading to Monarchy receiving an email from Richard himself which said the following:
“When we made the Jazz commercial for Honda via their advertising agency we also shot behind the scenes footage. At the end of the production we cut these scenes together as a gift to the client and a memento of the 16 weeks we had all worked on it.
It was only ever intended for in-house use and was cut to unlicenced popular music.
We told the client if they wanted to use the video commercially they would have to pay the licence fee for the music. That was up to them.
If the video was posted on YouTube with unlicenced music it would only be a matter of time before the licencee asked the channel posting it to pay a licence fee or take it down. The latter is likely what has happened.
While we have the master copy of the video ourselves we don’t have the permission of the people in it, or the licence holder of the music, to distribute it more widely than in-house.
Thanks for your interest in the project, which we all look back on with fondness.
Judging by the response, it confirms that the behind-the-scenes video is in possession of Honda’s (likely Australian) advertising agency, and that the behind-the-scenes video was cut to popular unlicensed music rather than an instrumental cut of the song heard in the commercial like Bulgy13 described.
Availability
Previously, the only way to hear the instrumental version of the song heard in the adverts was through a fan-made video inspired by The Ever So Nice Jazz titled "Smiley's Adventure," created by YouTube user Bulgy13 in 2008. In the comments, he replied to a user asking where the full version of the jazz track came from, where he mentioned how he recorded it from a behind-the-scenes video made for the commercials, effectively confirming its existence.
Later on, user Slick Video Productions uploaded the cut of the track heard in Smiley's Adventure to SoundCloud under the title "Honda Jazz Advertisement Music"[1]. Slick asked in the description for anyone who knew where the original full song could be found to come forward in the comments, but nobody has done so since it was uploaded.
While Bulgy13 has talked about it, and Richard Chataway himself has confirmed its existence, there is no other mention of the behind-the-scenes video online, and any footage from it has yet to be found. Given the conflicting accounts of whether an instrument cut of the advert’s music was in the video or not, how long ago the video was on YouTube before it was quickly taken down, and how the video is said to be under Honda’s ownership only, it seems unlikely that the behind-the-scenes video will ever resurface unless Honda decide to release it themselves.
Gallery
Videos
Images
Bulgy13 confirming the existence of a behind-the-scenes video for the Ever So Nice Jazz commercials.
Richard Chataway’s email to TheMonarchy, where he gives more information about the behind-the-scenes video made for the Honda Jazz commercials.
