±±¾©Èü³µpk10

I’m sure this series of new Clio ads brings a smile (wry or

otherwise) to most women’s faces. But it’s much smarter than that. While

making women chuckle, the Clio is being cleverly targeted at men

too.

For the first time Renault has moved the Clio away from appealing to

just young women (Nicole) and older men (Papa) and, with the exception

of Bob Mortimer (in ’The Wedding’), an attractive man drives the car for

the duration of the TV ad. However, there must be some uncertainty as to

whether men will be put off by the intimations about their manhood.

The standard 48-sheet posters are eye-catching, with gorgeous women

peeping suggestively over their glasses. But the main London site (at

the end of Hammersmith flyover) is the icing on the cake. A metallic

gold model of the new Clio is perched in front of the posters. I don’t

know if it’s a working model, but it looks the part.

When you’re sitting in a queue of traffic it’s startling to see a ’real’

life-size car smugly looking down at its larger cousins caught in

traffic.

If a car ad can generate a positive response from both drivers and

passengers stuck on one of the busiest routes in and out of London then

it is doing well. As an added bonus it’s bound to get a reaction from

all the pedestrians that see it too.

Size matters - but so does positioning.