Citroën C5 Advertising
Unmistakably German. Or so says the advertising tag line for the new Citroën C5.
Unfortunately for Citroën, the advertising campaign currently airing on UK television gets it wrong on so many levels.
I'm not exactly Citroën's target audience, in that I'm not the kind of person who would ever buy a Citroën (wouldn't
, touch
and bargepole
spring to mind), but watching this advert makes me wonder what kind of message Citroën is trying to get across to the potential C5 buyer.
The advert implies that German engineering is superior
and that the new C5 aspires to German standards. In fact, that you'd mistake the C5 for a German car if it weren't for the badge.
The problem for Citroën is that if consumers want a German car, they would buy a German car. What kind of insane advertising campaign states that the competition is superior and that their new product is an imitation, desperately trying to achieve the same kind of public perception?
Unmistakably German? Citroën may as well have said take a look at the Volkswagen line-up
for all the good this campaign will do them.
Aside from the message itself, we then have the furore the campaign has managed to kick up regarding Nazi stereotypes and symbolism. Nice own goal Citroën.
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Notes
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Beautiful full-screen image browsing served up by the snazzy PicLens plug-in. Impressive, though practicality is debatable.- Yahoo shifts to search the
semantic web
. Potentially huge, and very welcome news for usstandards nuts
. 
The Coke Zero Game. Latest masterpiece from the infuriatingly talented North Kingdom.
It's sites like the Red Bull Flight Lab that remind you what Flash is for. Brilliant application and an awful lot of fun.- Rejoice! The new Indiana Jones trailer has finally made an appearance. Can't wait.
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- Awesome panoramic view of the Airbus A380 cockpit interior. This is the super-future.
- Excellent article from accessibility supremo Roger Johansson on how inappropriate, or overuse, of HTML features meant to aid accessibility can actually have the opposite effect.
mad river
29 April, 2008
shame you dont like the advert,I would say the advert has scored as you are talking about it.
Also it might just challenge your perception of Citroen and its cars.
the point of the advert is to do just this as the “German” car choice is virtually a default one, and the advert says,look at this car ,it has the looks (better then its rivals), its well built, stylish and its only when you see the badge at the end of the advert that you see its French.
The advert/car may not be for you but its a bloody good advert none the less!! when was the last time people talked about a C5?
kitsimons
29 April, 2008
Strangely, I do quite like the style of the advert. Nice, interesting imagery. It’s the message I think is way off.
Looks are always going to be subjective – personally, I still think the German competition is more stylish and handsome, if soulless (but that’s another story).
Not all publicity is good publicity, but you’re right, at least people are talking about the C5. Which, according to the reviews, is much improved on the previous effort.
Simon
30 April, 2008
In the main I agree, the advert’s crap. I don’t buy into the Nazi stereotypes and symbolism argument though, it’s a step too far. I just think it’s an inept and misguided attempt to make a point of using Germanic stereotypes and it’s fallen into the realms of using blackletter fonts and bierkellers to get its message across.
Ironically, German marques are noticably falling down the reliability indexes – most notable, Mercedes-Benz – so the classic ‘German reliabilty’ itself might be turning into an outmoded German stereotype? Plus I’ve never been keen on modern BMW styling (z4 hardtop coupe excepted). Citroen have a long history of introducing innovative new features on their cars and (usually) great styling. Why the ad agency felt the need to take this bizarre route I don’t know. I especially hated the asterisked ‘Made in France’ popup at the end of the ad – it made me think of Tesco ads and looks cheap and gimmicky… wait a minute… maybe the ad agency got it spot on after all!
@mad river – I really get tired of the argument of an advert ‘scoring’ because it’s being discussed. I can only speak for myself but I’m not going to be taking delivery of a C4 anytime soon, and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one. But it’s on telly, so why not discuss it. Also, is buying a German car a default choice? I think Ford & GM probably shift more cars in the UK than German manufacturers.