The origins of the Tour de France.
Gaël Pollès, journalist and founder of Pratiks, walks us through the origins of one of the largest sporting events in the world. The Tour de France is the 3rd most watched sporting competition around the globe, after the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup, and it is broadcast in over 170 countries. The history of the Tour de France is tied to one of the darkest pages in French history: the Dreyfus affair. At the time, there was only one sports newspaper, “Le Vélo”, whose editor-in-chief Pierre Giffard was an avid defender of Dreyfus, which did not please the magnates of the bicycle and automobile industry, who were for the major part against Dreyfus. This prompted them to start their own newspaper, the “Auto-Vélo”, run by Henri Desgrange.
In 1903, the director of the “Vélo” sued the “Auto-Vélo” for plagiarism and won the case, which forced the director of “Auto-Vélo” to rename his newspaper to “Auto”. This caused a massive plummet in sales. As a marketing campaign, the “Auto” organized the Tour de France, the largest sporting competition ever to take place. This campaign worked so well that within the year, sales for “Auto” had gone through the roof.
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http://www.pratiks.com
In 1903, the director of the “Vélo” sued the “Auto-Vélo” for plagiarism and won the case, which forced the director of “Auto-Vélo” to rename his newspaper to “Auto”. This caused a massive plummet in sales. As a marketing campaign, the “Auto” organized the Tour de France, the largest sporting competition ever to take place. This campaign worked so well that within the year, sales for “Auto” had gone through the roof.
Find this and many other videos at
http://www.pratiks.com