New Citroen C5: Unmistakeably German

With Wagner’s famous ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ providing a rousing score, the latest creative commercial from French car manufacturer, Citroën - the people that brought you the award winning dancing robot in the Citroen C4 commercial– confidently presents its new C5 saloon as ‘Unmistakeably German’.

The audacious 60-second film in partnership with Euro RSCG plays off the reputation of Citroën’s German rivals to highlight the Teutonic qualities of the brand new C5.

The blonde hero drives his “unidentified” car from a swashbuckling duel outside a snowy gothic castle to a traditional Bavarian hofbr?uhaus, before joining the Autobahn to Berlin where he pulls up in front of the historic Brandenburg Gates.



Finally the narrator, Wolf Kahler, with German accent, introduces the campaign strapline, ‘Unmistakeably German’, wryly adding ‘Made in France’, to confirm that only Citroën could style such a car and provide the consumer with a strong and credible alternative.

Citroën is renowned for its original and memorable adverts. The dancing C4 robot became an overnight cult success - as well as inspiring several other amusing parodies. The Citroën C5 campaign is due to be launched in cinemas from February 22nd and on national television from April 2nd.

What amazes me most is the fact that car importers and regional offices in the Middle East and North Africa region hardly use any of those amazing and funny commercial. There are a lot of commercials (like the new Mercedes C-Class Estate in the opera, the Porsche 911 with the 10-year old potential buyer, the Nissan model range transformation in 'all-wheel-drive' insects, the Honda Civic commercial with the 'Volvo-Birthday-Wish', etc.) which would fit very well with the Middle Eastern viewer and would surely become some of the most memorable adverts in the Middle East region.

But instead of that we find in Egypt and the Middle East automotive commercials encouraging people to reckless driving and not to wear the seat-belts like the Chevrolet Aveo and Chevrolet model range TV commercial, which is not only silly and ineffective (when taking the Chevrolet Aveo sales numbers in Egypt and Middle East into consideration) but also extremely dangerous in terms of educating and encouraging people to conduct a harmful and reckless driving style.