• by Karl Greenberg , April 1, 2013

Honda has new headliners for the 2013 version of its long-running Civic Tour. The annual national summer concert tour, promoted by Live Nation (comprising Ticketmaster.com, Live Nation Concerts, Artist Nation and Live Nation Network) has been going on since 2001, but it's still something of an oddity in the sponsorship world. The traditional way of doing these things is to hitch an "official sponsor" ride with an established platform. Honda does its own thing with heavy lifting from promotional companies like Live Nation. 

This year's multi-city tour features Maroon 5, which will headline a show with Kelly Clarkson and the supporting acts of PJ Morton, Rozzi Crane and Tony Lucca, depending on the dates. As in past tours, the band will customize and autograph a Civic, which is featured at each of the 31 cities the tour visits. And in each market consumers get a chance to win the car via a promotional campaign. 

The 2012 tour, on which Linkin Park and Incubus split the tour schedule as headliners, started in August. The car that the bands tricked out was a Civic Si Coupe. For the first time a motorcycle was involved, as well: the Honda CBR250R. This year, same drill: a Civic Si and the bike. 

And, as long as it's April 1, Honda is getting into the hair business. The automaker, which introduced the latest version of the Honda Odyssey at last week's New York International Auto Show, has launched HondaHAIR, the first-ever (this doesn't need to be vetted)  mobile barbering tool, in the 2014 Odyssey Touring Elite. Okay, it's a joke, but it does manage to tout the HondaVAC vacuum device that comes with the elite version of the Odyssey. 

A spoof video touts the fictive Odyssey Touring Elite’s haircutting attachment as an "efficient way to cut hair for families on the go."

The spoof even has a PR quote. “We recognize that our Odyssey drivers are busier than ever, which is why we’ve packed the car with so many conveniences, including this HondaHAIR forward-thinking technology,” said Parsley Thyme, head of Honda Public Relations.