Honda Calls All Cool Moms

Honda Crave

11/21/2007

Manufacturer Says it Knows What You Crave

The last time someone asked me if I was craving anything, I was pregnant. The only reason they were asking was because they wanted to hear some bizzaro pregnancy craving, like pickles and ice cream. Well, aside from an unnatural affinity for baked potatoes, I didn’t have any crazy cravings when I was with child. I do, however, have plenty of cravings on a day-to-day basis now that I’m a harried working mother and wife (not to mention daughter, friend, sister, etc.). There are all sorts of things that could, at any moment, provide me with some calm or put a spring back in my step.

Well, guess what? Honda wants to know what I and all “cool moms in their 30s” (which I totally am, by the way) crave as part of a new advertising campaign for the CR-V. Now that I approve of. Ladies, listen up: With this campaign, we have someone who’s out to get us — an internet-age Romeo, a car company with a crush, a not-so-secret admirer who simply wants to know what we want (and sell a few cars in the process … details, details). Who can resist that?

The fun happens at www.crave.honda.com. Call me a procrastinator, but I just spent a few minutes (OK, maybe an hour or two) playing the game there. It’s a 20-questions game that guesses what you want. Honda brags on the website that “it’s almost as if [the CR-V is] a vehicle that can detect what you seek in other areas of your life as well.” Wouldn’t that be nice?

I played the game several times and was most impressed when it guessed that I was craving a little romance. Truthfully, I myself didn’t know what exactly I had in mind, but I was feeling a bit lonely after flying across the country solo, missing my hubby and baby something awful. My hubba hubby better have something special planned upon my return. Maybe I should send him the link; unlike the CR-V, he isn’t designed to anticipate my cravings. Men!

I might also have been feeling a little ornery when I first played the game, given I clicked on “irrelevant” as the answer to every single one of the questions. It spit back that I was craving an earthquake. Huh? I continued with the “irrelevants” until it spit out “hangover.” Again I say, huh? While I have experienced both of those things, I’ve never craved either, trust me! Maybe I was actually craving trouble, because that’s obviously what I was creating. Earthquakes and hangovers aside, I think this new Honda campaign rocks. And trust me, I am a cool mom in her 30s, so I totally know what that means.