By Martin Schwoerer
February 27, 2008
Check out the ad for the new Citroen C5 above. I shall translate. "We at Citroen have a sense of humor (you see, we're not REALLY German). We are taking this new car seriously, so we are spending millions on a gorgeous campaign by ad agency EuroRSCG. This is a car for anal-retentives and it won't be unreliable. BMW has won the [carmaking] war, so all we can do is parrot/parody them. We'll do anything to promote the car, including negating what's left of Citroen's brand values (which were: hydropneumatic suspension, quirky styling, value-for-money, French esprit)." Like you, I'm amused and confused. "Vorsprung Durch Gobbledygook" or "Fahrvergnuckgnuck." Those were (kinda) OK, because they said: "We are German, but we no longer invade other countries, we just build good cars". In other words, those compaigns transported a coherent message about branding and national identity. This Citroen ad? Not so much.
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POWERED
February 27th, 2008 at 8:32 am
I think Mel Brooks should get a few royalty checks out of that piece.
February 27th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Ouch! Talk about losing it. If I want a German car, I’ll buy a german car, not a French one…
February 27th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Hey that thing is made not too far from where I live, so I have seen a few of them around… they are pretty nice looking but the word is that they are pretty heavy and under perform compared to their last version which has the same motors pulling more weight.
However misguided, Citroen didn’t hide the fact that they were aiming for Audi with this one. So they put more importance on looks and perceived quality.
This segment, doesn’t go well with quirky… large (for european) sedans usually have to please retirees and business men.
If you can’t beat em, join em. Oh well, so much for getting past the surrender rep… especially to the germans.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:52 am
I can’t say as I blame them. They aren’t under any obligation to build quirky cars that don’t sell. After all, what good are brand values if no one buys a car because of them?
February 27th, 2008 at 11:56 am
CarShark:
I can’t say as I blame them. They aren’t under any obligation to build quirky cars that don’t sell. After all, what good are brand values if no one buys a car because of them?
An excellent point. But the only thing worse than a failing brand is a flailing brand.
February 27th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Ach! Mein Sensibilité!
–chuck
February 27th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Grossartig!