Did you see the Live Honda Advert?

Well, did you? 2.2 million people did, during an ad break for Channel 4's Come Dine With Me last night. Honda's latest commercial – totally live. Oooh. 168,000 people tuned in just to see it. The 3-minute ad involved a skydiving team over Spain, who spelt out the word "HONDA" during free-fall. The stunt cost Honda, famed for their imaginative and creative commercials, a cool £500,000.

I love the idea of live adverts, but Honda's stunt wasn't that brilliant -- was it? I mean, a mass skydive with people forming the word "HONDA" is impressive, but did the fact it was live add anything? It was more an exercise in broadcasting synchronization than anything else, to me. And it lasted the whole ad break, too. I'd have been more impressed if they were under a tight 30-second deadline to perform the stunt. Still, it made 168,000 people actually seek out an advert on TV, and got people talking about it. Including me, right here and now. So it did its job. I applaud it.

Will this start a trend, though? It proves people still find live TV alluring, even if we regularly time-shift live TV shows with Sky+ these days. Remember those live episodes of The Bill and Coronation Street? Live television still has that danger and immediate connection to viewers. I'd hate to see live ads become passé, but wouldn't it be cool to see a live Guinness advert -- like that domino-effect one? Any other suggestions?