• by Tanya Gazdik , February 2, 2017

Honda’s Super Bowl Spot, revealed Thursday morning on the “Today” show, is a who’s who of entertainment and sports stars.

The 60-second commercial stars the all-new 2017 Honda CR-V and Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Viola Davis, Missy Elliott, Tina Fey, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Jimmy Kimmel, Stan Lee and Robert Redford.

Created and produced by RPA, agency of record for Honda, the spot was crafted using cutting-edge technology to bring the high-school yearbook images to life. Layering together the vintage photographs, 3D scans and footage from visual-effects enables each celebrity photo in “Yearbooks” to tell a story.

The brand is launching an “extensive” social media campaign to accompany the launch of TV spot. 

The Honda CR-V was introduced 20 years ago during Super Bowl XXXI. Scheduled to run in the first break during the second quarter, the spot takes viewers back in time through a look at the high-school dreams of famous celebrities before they were household names.

The spot continues Honda’s longtime theme “The Power of Dreams,”  which the automaker says is a belief that drives everything Honda creates.

Honda released a short teaser spot starring Steve Carell on Facebook and Twitter. As part of the #PowerOfDreams social-media campaign, the stars of “Yearbooks” and social influencers will inspire others to follow their dreams, leading up to and throughout the big game.

In conjunction with today’s #TBT (Throwback Thursday), celebrities from the spot as well as 10 other influencers—from professional athletes and musicians to food tastemakers and comedians—will share their younger selves and tell their stories of overcoming obstacles, taking risks and persevering to pursue their dreams, as well as encourage others to share their own stories on social media.

On Twitter, between Thursday and Super Bowl Sunday, celebrities from the “Yearbooks” spot and influencers will “dream it forward” and personally reach out with advice to people who have hit bumps in the road on the way to achieving their dreams.

After the Super Bowl, an integrated campaign continues the theme of achieving dreams through TV, digital banners, out of home, radio, print advertising and social campaigns. The campaign will also include homepage takeovers on ESPN, Amazon and Yahoo.

Melinda McLaughlin, CMO, Extreme Reach, calls the spot "brilliant" and said it is "creativity at its best."

"It is so original, in approach and message, and made me want more," she says. "I watched it several times to try and comprehend how they pulled that off. With this spot, Honda reminds us what great advertising looks, and more importantly, feels like. Aside from the creative brilliance and artful technique, it also felt very apropos for this moment in history, where we see people coming together through common hopes and dreams to inspire each other to reach higher."