SUPER BOWL XLVI: Is Honda Behind the Ferris Bueller Resurrection?

Jalopnik Reports It Has Solved the Mystery of the YouTube Teaser

Ferris Bueller's back, and this time he's driving a Honda. Maybe.

The short-lived mystery about a Super Bowl ad teaser put up on YouTube Thursday may have been unraveled on Friday, when Jalopnik reported that Matthew Broderick's character, the sausage king of Chicago, would be central to a spot for the company's refreshed mini SUV, the 2013 CR-V.

The 10-second clip echoes a scene from the original film, when Broderick, who was 24 at the time, looks at the camera and says, "How can I possibly be expected to handle school on a day like this?" In the teaser, a much more mature Broderick, wrapped in a white robe, exclaims, "How can I handle work on a day like today?" The date of Feb. 5 -- Super Bowl Sunday -- then flashes on the screen.

The clip set off a whirlwind of speculation on the web, leading some to believe a sequel to "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" was in the making, though Broderick himself has in the past said a sequel wouldn't make much sense.

A source at American Honda Motors in California would not confirm that Broderick is in its ad and would only tell Ad Age that the company expected to issue a press release about the ad on Monday. Honda agency RPA has not responded to a request for comment. American Honda's Acura division also has a spot in the game. And online sleuthing yesterday had a couple of Ad Age staffers leaning toward Chrysler as the culprit.

Even if Jalopnik turned out to be wrong -- and the site seems pretty confident in its reporting -- it seems unlikely that the marketer behind this tease would be able to keep the secret safe until game day. It's one thing to keep your campaign under lock and key, another to put a teaser on YouTube in 2012 and not expect someone among the millions of people on social media and blogs to ferret it out.

According to Jalopnik, the spot, which was the work of Todd Phillips, who made "The Hangover," would use the 1986 comedy as a theme, updated to 2012 sensibilities. The auto-enthusiast site reports that during the iconic scene of the two valets jumping a hill, the red Ferrari will be replaced with a CR-V.

Honda -- or whatever company is behind this -- could be playing with fire. The top two comments on YouTube at the moment are from people outraged that a sequel is not in the offing.

The first reads: "If this is a commercial for honda, im keying every honda car i see in the street."

And the second: "Surely this can only fail as an advert. I hate Honda more than I can say right now. They show us a glimpse of something we can only dream about, then replace it with a crappy car. FUCK YOU HONDA. SAVE FERRIS."

FAILURE: THE SECRET TO SUCCESS PRESENTED BY HONDA "DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE" SERIES

HONDA'S WORLD PREMIERE AT SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

At the Sundance Film Festival, the streets of Park City, Utah have become so commercialized through the years that it's hard to imagine any real estate still untouched by a marketer on either official or bootlegged pretenses. But at this weekend's 26th annual festival, Honda will go where no marketer has gone before at the festival -- on the big screen.

Honda and Sundance Channel are teaming up for a series of co-branded vignettes documenting the Sundance Insitute's Sundance Labs workshops, held every summer at the Sundance Resort in Utah. The vignettes will air before every film screened in dramatic competition at the film festival, which starts today and runs through Jan. 31. The spots are designed to illustrate Honda's global tagline, "The power of dreams," and will also air on Sundance Channel throughout the festival's 10-day run. Honda's media agency, Santa Monica-based RPA, helped broker the relationship.

Dreaming about robots

Barbara Ponce, Honda's manager-corporate and diversity advertising, said the carmaker's strategic presence at the festival synced up nicely with the company's latest corporate branding campaign, "Living With Robots," which is also the title of a short film co-produed with @radical.media that will debut during Sundance's "Dream the Impossible" documentary series and at dreams.Honda.com. The short film spotlights Honda's research with the ASIMO project, or Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility, which examines how humanoid robots can be integrated into society through research. Both "Living With Robots" and the Sundance Labs vignettes showcase the potential of dreams and ideas, Ms. Ponce said.

"In an altruistic sense, Honda sees its role as supporting the communications of fresh ideas," she said. "So for us this is a balance of a marketing sponsorship and a contribution to the Institute and the festival to be able to put on this important event."

Honda's sponsorship of the Sundance Labs is also helping filmmakers make the right relationships to get their films distributed. Evan Shapiro, president of Rainbow Media's Sundance Channel and IFC, argued that this year was the most seminal in the festival's history since its first gathering in 1981.

Impending crisis for indie films

"It's really a time of change here, not just in the festival's impact on the culture but for the predictive nature on how brands will work with nonprofits and how independent film itself will be distributed," he said. "Pretty much ever major independent film studio is in danger of closing, so if not for a partnership with some kind of corporation -- whether it's Comcast, Google, Microsoft -- they would cease to exist as we know them. Without corporate support, I don't think we'll have as many opportunities for artists to flourish in the next decade."

The alignment of Honda-branded content with the ultimate product at Sundance, the films themselves, should help separate the marketer from the increasingly crowded pack of brands clamoring to get their logos, products and swag in front of filmmakers, celebrities and hangers-on. Festival founder Robert Redford has even cried foul against so-called ambush marketers for hijacking the festival's streets and houses to get their brands in front of celebrities like Paris Hilton who have nothing to do with the festival other than having their picture taken.

Jill Miller, managing director of the Sundance Institute, said the festival has adopted a model in recent years where it doesn't allow more than 20 official sponsors, to keep the brand clutter to a relative minimum.

"We look for companies that have shared values and want to achieve similar goals," she said. "If they come in and want to do something that doesn't work for us, ultimately it's not going to be successful."

Much needed boost

This year's sponsors are helping defray 40% of the festival's nearly $10 million in annual production costs, with combined sponsor and unkind donations amounting to about 54%, or roughly $5 million. Honda, Sundance Channel, Entertainment Weekly and Hewlett-Packard are the four presenting sponsors, with Brita water filter signed on as a sustaining sponsor and DirecTV a leadership sponsor.

"Corporate sponsorship is key to offsetting costs so we can offer reasonable ticket prices, and any remaining revenue from the festival helps to support our work year-round," Ms. Miller said. Honda will also provide all-new 2010 CRV and X-Tour vehicles to drive filmmakers to and from events in Park City, while Southwest Airlines, the festival's official airline partner, is flying participating filmmakers to this year's event.