Clio’s 33-year-young advertising saga is as remarkable as the car itself – which is France’s best-selling model (at 16 million units and counting), “has got everything of a great car” in a very real sense, and has inspired myriad adverts and slogans since 1990.
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MotorTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 Clio fits exactly with my professional life
00:09 because I started working in 1990.
00:13 So I've been working for 33 years
00:15 and creating advertising movie nearly since 33 years.
00:20 Apart from the period where I was in China
00:24 between 2011 and 2016,
00:27 I missed all the Clio ad for five years.
00:30 Clio has been part of my advertising journey.
00:34 There are several things that stand out for me
00:37 in the Clio advertising saga.
00:38 The first was the launch,
00:41 which honestly I thought was a complete failure
00:45 with the transformer concept.
00:48 (upbeat music)
00:54 I was working at Renault in that time, I was younger.
00:59 And I saw the ad for the first time on TV
01:02 and I thought to myself,
01:04 it's impossible to mess up an advert
01:07 for a car as important as the Clio.
01:10 But I have to sincerely admit that we made up for it
01:15 because I remember the Clio saga perfectly
01:19 with its (speaking in foreign language)
01:21 it's got everything of a great car.
01:23 I remember the three USSR movies in 1992,
01:28 the China film in 1994
01:31 with that incredible slogan that you can't do anymore
01:35 if you don't have the new Clio ride a bike.
01:38 It's impossible to say that today.
01:40 And then of course the 1995 film
01:43 with the modern version of "The Godfather."
01:46 (upbeat music)
01:50 I also vividly remember a film
01:52 that marked a whole generation,
01:54 which I think was the first time we saw the Clio Baccarat.
01:59 I think it was on Clio phase one, again,
02:04 not expensive enough, nice.
02:05 (speaking in foreign language)
02:08 It was the very cool Amir in the same attitude
02:10 as she has everything for a great car,
02:12 (speaking in foreign language)
02:13 So that's it.
02:14 I think the whole success of Clio
02:16 comes down to that period.
02:18 After that, there are films that I knew
02:20 afterwards but did not live through
02:24 because I wasn't in the countries concerned by this movie.
02:29 But there are at least two that for me
02:33 are absolutely iconic movie.
02:36 The famous "Get Up," "Get Up"
02:38 (bird chirping)
02:39 - Get up!
02:40 - As it's remembered this advert,
02:44 which I believe was for the MTV limited edition in Italy,
02:50 based on a very simple creative gimmick,
02:53 the car drive past and all you hear from the car
02:58 is the chorus of James Brown music.
03:02 (car engine roaring)
03:02 - Get up!
03:03 Get up!
03:06 - Then of course, there's the absolutely crazy
03:10 advertising saga from 1991.
03:15 I think it lasted to 1998.
03:17 It's in UK, it's "Papa and Nicole."
03:20 That's an iconic saga.
03:22 I love that saga.
03:24 Then came a long moment where I admit
03:26 that I was not really interested in Clio anymore
03:29 because I was working at competition.
03:31 And I don't remember too much that period basically,
03:35 but I remember one slogan,
03:37 which was perfectly written.
03:41 It was around 2007.
03:43 It was the movie called "C'est l'extérieur de Richesse."
03:46 I think it was in France.
03:49 I really like that.
03:51 I'm quite jealous.
03:51 I would have loved to have found the slogan.
03:55 There was a sublime ad that did not make it to France,
04:00 but was made in the UK as very often,
04:03 which is very touching and very modern in its conception
04:08 and stating from 2019.
04:12 It features Oasis music, "Wonderwall."
04:18 And that's a movie about two teenagers,
04:21 paintballs, one French, one English,
04:24 who live their lives through all generation of Clio
04:28 and meet again in 2019 to live together.
04:32 That was bold.
04:33 That was bold.
04:34 That was very modern.
04:36 These two ladies in the movie, in that context.
04:40 So Renaud has always been a bit of a pioneer.
04:43 And that movie is exactly showing that.
04:47 So looking back, there are quite a few film
04:51 that have made a lasting impression on me.
04:54 And it's true that most of these film
04:57 have one thing in common, in fact, humor.
05:01 Today, humor is less in style in the car industry
05:05 because it's not always really premium.
05:08 And it's more or less the property of Volkswagen.
05:13 But you know, nothing is the owner of any creative style.
05:16 So we can do what we want.
05:17 But as I look back over my 33 years in advertising,
05:22 I realized that Clio has used humor quite a bit.
05:25 And I think that's one of the common features
05:29 of the advertising saga that have made an impression on me,
05:33 to be perfectly honest.
05:36 Obviously, out of modesty,
05:39 I don't want to include in the list of the iconic movies,
05:45 the one that I've made since 2020.
05:49 But I really like one of these.
05:52 It was the one where we covered the music
05:57 from the Bugles called "Video Kill the Radio Star."
06:00 (upbeat music)
06:01 ♪ Pay to the credit for your second symphony ♪
06:05 ♪ We will do my machine on new technology ♪
06:08 ♪ Video kill the radio star ♪
06:12 Which was a bit of re-storytelling of the Clio saga
06:16 that I realized after that the British
06:20 have used in the same probably method.
06:23 I didn't actually know anything
06:25 about the British movies at the start.
06:28 They used the same creative twist as I did
06:31 for the Clio saga.
06:33 And I think they were right,
06:36 because their themes are very beautiful, very emotional.
06:39 And they turned Clio into an icon
06:42 by making the car part of a human saga.
06:45 They create an iconic dimension doing so,
06:47 and bring out the transgenerational aspect of the car.
06:51 That's pretty, pretty clever.
06:53 So I realized that I did not invent it for Renault.
06:57 And yes, the British has done it before.
07:00 And that's a super cool thing.
07:02 I have to acknowledge the fact that there are plenty of ads
07:06 that I didn't like either.
07:08 Let's be honest, that's fair.
07:10 But still, about nine or 10 that I liked,
07:14 that's pretty cool.
07:15 Of course, Clio is a real icon.
07:22 With, imagine, 16 million cars sold.
07:26 So obviously, that's the best French-selling car
07:30 in the world.
07:31 So for me, with 33 years of advertising in my background,
07:36 that's five generations.
07:39 And today we are in phase two of the fifth.
07:42 In 33 years of advertising, it's unquestionably a car
07:47 that is loved by many people, at least 16 million.
07:53 The energy is changing, it's becoming an hybrid,
07:57 but the love is still there.
07:59 And it's really what we wanted to play up, in fact.
08:02 We wanted to do something extremely fashion, premium.
08:07 We wanted, as always, an iconic music.
08:10 We have chosen Erasure, I say it with a French accent,
08:14 "O l'amour," which is a huge hit from the '90s.
08:17 But that's not enough.
08:24 We have a surprise, a little surprise,
08:28 installed for the end of the year,
08:30 because we have made something specific for Clio,
08:34 and it will be released by the end of the year,
08:37 exactly in December.
08:38 We've given Carte Blanche to a rap artist
08:43 whose rap is very composed, classy, written, very melodic,
08:48 and who has written an hybrid track for us.
08:53 His name is Silla, he's from Belgium.
08:56 We gave him Carte Blanche, as I said before,
08:59 because he wrote the track, he wrote the lyrics.
09:03 We didn't alter it very much, very few things.
09:08 And we also gave him the Carte Blanche
09:12 to film the video clip.
09:15 This will be broadcasted on social networks,
09:17 and the track will be released as a normal track
09:20 on streaming platform by the end of the year.
09:23 That's the surprise of the year
09:26 for the Clio 33 anniversary of advertising.
09:31 (music)
09:33 [Music]