Leap of faith for live Honda advert
Channel 4 has staged a live television advert involving an ambitious sky diving jump.
The commercial was screened during the channel's dinner party series Come Dine With Me.
The sky divers were given only three minutes and 20 seconds to spell out a message to viewers in a series of challenging formations over Madrid.
The advert, inspired by Honda's strapline "If it's difficult it's worth doing" was a precursor to the car manufacturer's new advertising campaign, beginning on June 1.
The idea was developed by Channel 4's strategic sales team, led by Mike Parker, and 4creative for Honda.
Mr Parker said: "Honda is walking the talk with this ad launch; it is bold, daring and very difficult."
The team of expert sky divers included European champion Phil Curtis, four world champions and nine national sky diving champions.
Andy Barnes, sales director, Channel 4, said: "This concept breaks the boundaries of the 'perceived' confines of TV advertising, which is something Channel 4 is striving to do."
"Live" commercials have been particularly associated with the 1950s era.
More recently, in 2006, what was billed as the first live theatrical advert was announced in a Visit London initiative starring Father Ted actress Pauline McLynn.
The letter 'o' being formed in the advert The first ever live advert to be shown on British television was Broadcast today on Channel 4 at 19:10 UTC. The advert, created by car manufacturer Honda, showed people jumping from the sky and forming the individual letters of the word ''HONDA'' as a group while falling. The image on the left shows the letter 'O' being formed in this way.

The sales director at Channel Four commented on the advert: "This concept breaks the boundaries of the 'perceived' confines of TV advertising, which is something Channel 4 is striving to do."

Before being shown, the advert was promoted on Channel 4. Directly before it, an announcer explained the event, saying why Channel 4 believed it to be a groundbreaking innovation.

Honda aimed to link the new advert with its new slogan, "If it's difficult it's worth doing."

The advert was broadcast from Spain, where it was 21:10 at the time of filming.