There’s a saying, used in the building trade about preparing for a VIP visit and for finalising the layout of ship and aircraft interiors. “If you can’t hide it, paint it red.” If you’re trying to advertise the Citroen 2CV, then a similar rule seems to have applied.
These are a selection of Citroen 2CV advertisements from the 1980s – as you can imagine there was no point in trying to advertise in the same way as practically any other car. But Citroen still advertised, with tongue firmly in cheek and “amuse” rather than “inform” being the aim. Here’s a selection.
Gently poking fun at others (the intimate not ultimate driving machine, frontiers without technology perhaps hinting at vorsprung durch technik, Vauxhall used “Once driven, forever smitten” for some time.
Naturally, there was an answer to the questions about speed and luxury. After, no one breaks speed limits.
And no need to indulge in expensive full colour advertising either – completely out of character.
And which luxuries do you actually need? Space, good seats, fresh air…….after all, you’re likely to moving around town most of the time anyway.
And comparative advertising of the 2CV was possible, sort of.
Vintage advertising is one of my favorite article types here on CC. Keep ’em coming!
Helpful hint: When scanning a page from a magazine, put a piece of black paper in back of the page you are scanning. This will eliminate bleed-through from the content on the other side of the scanned page, and result in a much nicer scan.
I love the dig at the Porsche whale tail – the plastic luggage rack. By the ‘80’s, these 2CV’s appeared as dated as the side valve Ford Popular must have been in 1959, but the technology was still far more contemporary with independent suspension, FWD etc.
I love these!
I’d say the Brits make the best ads, but not necessarily always, only, or exclusively:
At university, I had two friends with “Enten” (Ducks). They were perfect for our needs. We never went very far, never went anywhere often, so they would sit out back of our Wohngemeinschaften until someone decided to give one of them a start. With wide open windows, al fresco daily dining, (when the rain wasn’t falling), getting the “ducks” started always drew a little crowd. Beloved cars. I was completely unfamiliar with them, although I was already familiar with Trabbis, DAFs, and Wartburgs, but hadn’t seen these before except in French cinemas.
One was the popular red and tan, and the other was the classic black with red trim. Both were 15-20 years old at the time. Both had those ugly square headlights, used during the 1980s. They were perfect for cruising around our 650 year old university town.
I couldn’t believe these were sold. So crude, so French in design, so ingenious and so much fun. They were called “Enten”, and VW Beetles were called “Käfer”. I always loved them, but these things would end up killing you if you tried driving them around the States.
The attraction of the Ente was the fact that they satisfied your childhood fantasies of having a life-size toy car. It would be completely ridiculous for modern options to be in these cars, as much as it would be ridiculous for them to show up in a JEEF CJ5. So the advertising during the 1980s for the 2CV completely compliments the car. Still, $9,000? Hard to believe anything about these cars justifies that amount.
Quel fromage! Superbes publicites!
Ne plus, “Ta porte est entrouverte”.
A bit of trivia: contrary to the ad #5, it did have the fan belt, but it was not belt driving the fan, but the other way around – fan driving the belt (and the alternator on the other side).
Remember reading something about that long ago; not mechanical though. Your explanation is so simple, I get it now!!
I take it the fan was electric ((or battery operated) then?
The fan is driven directly off the crankshaft.
They should have used “Babar” and his gang in their ads!! Still, this one about the “colors” is waay cool!
Babar…? Might you mean Tintin?
Soo soo cute!!
This reminds me of the ads by Karel Suyling in the Netherlands between 1958 and1971.
Wonderful ads. Not that I’d ever have bought one, but reading the ad would bring a smile to your day. I love the one that takes a dig at other manufacturers’ slogans!
Here’s the Dolly in white with red accents.
Oh these take me back to circa 1987 when I cut these out of UK’s Car magazine and had them on my bedroom walls (amongst other car pics naturally). Ads #1 and #5 were my two faves, and I recall using them for school projects in my third and fourth form English classes – my classmates probably thought I was weird, but the ads were so gloriously clever and funny!
The ads are very reminiscent of VW ads of the 60s and early 70s.
I remember first seeing one on a trip in Germany in the 60s and at first thought it was an early Beetle, then thought it was a metal shop school exercise. Yes, I know they’re French, but they were cheap and Germany in the 60s wasn’t that far removed from WWII.
I love seeing them, but I can’t say I have the least interest in having one.
My brother and I rented one from 2 horse car hire in London and drove it to York and back in 1984. It wasn’t that much fun on the A1, but we had fun exploring Yorkshire and navigating London traffic and learning to drive on the left.
I’ve just bought a 1975 (ex UK, RHD one) in Brisbane, Australia – they were never sold new here, and am currently tidying a few things up in it. What an easy car to work on, everything is designed to have a function. There are a few nuances though. Make sure that oil filler cap is sealed and works properly otherwise any small leak in the engine will be exaggerated. With the price of petrol as it is now, another good reason to own one in 2022.
I have owned my 2CV for over 30 years, so I am obviously a fan. Citroen has had many fun advertisements over the years, including those shown here from the UK. This is from France and is also one of my favourites.
The translation is:
“What more do you need?”
“The new 2CV Special costs Ff 700 less” (Ff is French Francs)
And another British one in a different style, for the Dolly special edition.
Great adverts .
2CV’s were all over the college town of Cambrige, Mass. in the late 1950’s and 1960’s .
In the 1980’s I bought a 1959 2CV – AZ, this is the earlier version with no fan belt, the generator and fan are on the nose of the crankshaft , it also had suicide doors and no fuel gauge, just a fiber strip in the gad tank marked with MM and Liters .
Fun cars, total death traps .
-Nate