Renault is celebrating 30 years of the Clio with a TV ad tracing the model’s various iterations alongside the tale of a relationship that later turns to love between an English girl and her French friend.
Created by Publicis.Poke, “The French exchange” will air in 30-second, 60-second and 120-second versions, accompanied by a melancholy cover of Oasis’ Wonderwall.
The work tells the story of two girls who met during a 1990s school exchange trip and sustained their friendship over three decades, with plenty of trials and tribulations along the way. It ends with the pair and their daughter visiting the English woman’s parents.
The campaign launches today (Friday) across the UK, running on TV, cinema, video-on-demand, out-of-home, press, social media and eCRM. Renault is also running activity on music-streaming service Spotify.
Adam Wood, Renault UK’s marketing director, said: “Renault brings people’s passion for life a little closer through our cars. We wanted to humanise and celebrate not just 30 years of progress of the Renault Clio, but also the progress made within culture, society and life in that time.”
Dave Monk, Publicis.Poke’s executive creative director, added: “Britain has had a love affair with the Renault Clio since the 90s halcyon days of ‘Papa and Nicole’ and wind-up windows. Many things have changed in those 30 years.
“While technology, design, attitudes and culture will always shift and change, one thing will always stay the same as long as humans have hearts. The love story. This is a simple and universal tale of two souls on their own enduring journey of life, love and passion.”
The work was created by Monk, Colin Byrne, Rob Butcher and Tom Genower, and directed by Frederic Planchon through Academy. Manning Gottlieb OMD is the media agency.
This article was originally published by Campaign.