Mr. Opportunity

Mr. Opportunity
Voiced by	Rob Paulsen[1] Eduardo Iduñate (Spanish)[2][3]
Aliases	Mr. O.
Gender	Male

Mr. Opportunity (sometimes referred to as "Mr. O.") is an animated character used in marketing by Honda Motors. Since 2004,^[4] he has appeared in Honda advertisements, as their mascot, during their annual “Honda Clearance" event. Mr. O. informs the viewers (or listeners if it’s on the radio) of the deals being offered by Honda during the model year-end clearance event. His typical tagline is “I’m Mr. Opportunity, [knocks on “glass” or microphone] and I’m knockin'!”, although more recent commercials don't always use this tagline.

In 2010, for unknown reasons, Honda began their campaign referencing 'Opportunity is knocking', but the commercials aired without Mr. Opportunity being seen at all. Several weeks into the campaign Mr. Opportunity began making on-screen visits, however as noted above, his traditional trademark antics in 2010 have been modified.

Mr. Opportunity television commercials are animated by LAIKA/house in Portland, Oregon and the animation is directed by Aaron Sorenson entirely in the classic 2D animation style.

The ad campaign was put on hold for 2011 (due to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which affected Honda's supply chain^[5]) and replaced by the "Good Reasons" campaign, with actor Patrick Warburton making jabs at a cardboard Mr. Opportunity in the introductory ad about a "man (doing a) cartoon man's job".^[6]

Character design and look

Mr. Opportunity appears as a White man in his mid-thirties. He has dark-blond hair that is slightly up at the front in a kind of "cowlick" fashion and has green eyes. He typically wears a light-blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, light brown slacks, and dark brown shoes. In older commercials, he wore a gray jacket over that outfit. In the 2010 commercial "Paparazzi," Mr. Opportunity wore a dark blue suit and white collared shirt.

Radio

In radio commercials, Mr. Opportunity is, at times, joined by another person who usually expresses a certain amount of excitement upon meeting him. An example of this is as follows:

Sally: Wow, you’re so much taller in person…
Mr. O.: Sally, I’m not really real, I’m animated —
Sally: Aw, not to me, you’re not. Oh, are you married?

In these radio ads, Mr. Opportunity makes frequent reference to the fact that he is animated (i.e., not real, unlike the people around him). In one radio ad, he admits that coffee "goes right through [him]" when Sally asks him if he wants to get a cup with her (this obviously pokes fun at Mr. Opportunity’s "intangibility").

See also

• Honda
• Rob Paulsen

References

1. ^ http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/adtrack/2007-10-14-movie-ads_N.htm
2. ^ http://www.voiceoveruniverse.com/profile/EduardoIdunate
3. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPdK1jku6pE
4. ^ http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/adtrack/2007-10-14-movie-ads_N.htm
5. ^ http://www.autoblog.com/2011/09/16/was-hondas-mr-opportunity-a-casualty-of-japans-natural-disast/
6. ^ Grey, Joni (13 September 2011). "Honda Offers 'Good Reasons' to Buy Its Cars in Multimedia Push; Spokesman Patrick Warburton Knocks Mr. Opportunity in Comedic Campaign". Advertising Age. http://adage.com/article/news/honda-spokesman-patrick-warburton-knocks-mr-opportunity/229748/. Retrieved 14 September 2011. 

• LAIKA/House – Official site
• Honda of Concord – Mr. Opportunity
• Animation Nation – Discussion board