This TV commercial for the new Honda hybrid, the Insight, is being aired in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Russia where the environmentally friendly car is being sold. Made by Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, the TV spot appears to synchronize hundreds of Insight LED headlights, turning them into “pixels” to create animated images set to the tune of “Let It Shine” by Berend Dubbe.

Before starting filming in Cape Town, South Africa, the production team, led by director Erik van Wyk, ran tests to see whether the idea was even feasible. Although it was possible, concern over the giant carbon footprint that would be created by such a shoot led them to adopt a modified approach – a combination of modeling software for animation, a small number of Insight vehicles for scale and a few hundred Insight headlights. The vehicles and headlights were precisely spaced and wired together while a specially created computer program created the two separate halves of the animations. These animation halves were later merged in post-production.