I woke up this morning wondering if the 2022 Acura Integra announcement had just been a dream. Could the greatest near-luxury sport compact car the U.S. market’s ever seen really be getting a proper successor? We don’t know how good it will be yet but the exciting answer is yes — a new Integra really is coming. If you’re somehow not stoked out of your gosh dang gourd by that prospect already, sit down and soak up Brad Pitt in his prime slinging Integra (nottegra!) for Honda in Japan.
Somebody who inhabits the same car-themed Slack channel that I do, one Antti K., dropped this into a chat and I found it delightfully wacky. You may have seen Pitt’s JDM Honda spots before — naturally, it’s made the rounds on car forums and blogs a time or two. The most interesting piece of insight I could glean from a little cursory research is a claim that “Nottegra” is a play on words; apparently “notte (or noru) is to ride/drive” in Japanese so it’s “ride the Integra.” At least, that’s what Honda-Tech user AoiGSR posited in a now-ancient (2002!) post. If anyone reading this speaks Japanese, please help us figure that one out in the comments!
In a similar vein, I found out from this old blog post on originalJDMguy.com that Brad Pitt was known by the nickname “Burapi” in Japan, which is just a cute side note.
I can’t really tell how much of the “behind-the-scenes” aspect of this clip is supposed to be part of the commercial, but it looks like Pitt is in some kind of generic action sequence with an Integra and, yeah, I guess how much else do you need for a car ad?
If you stick around for Pitt’s interview at around the 01:27 mark you’ll get his insights on the Integra itself: “Ah I think it’s beautiful! You know, very clean lines. Very beautiful paint.” Hmm. OK, maybe Brad Pitt is not particularly interested in cars but I’ll give him a pass because it’s just so much fun to see two ’90s legends (him and the DC2 Integra) in the same shot.
There were at least two other Pitt/Honda spots, but they’re a little more odd than exciting:
The third one is a lot harder to find, it’s also the lamest so you don’t really need to click here but that’s a non-embeddable upload if you’re compelled to complete the set.
Who would be the ultimate celebrity spokesperson for the new Integra? Maybe Tyler, the Creator? He might be a little too cool to stoop to car commercials but based on the vehicles I’ve seen in his videos it seems like a new sport compact car would be up his alley in real life.
