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Award-winning Renault video is ‘ba ba banned’

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Time 3:44 pm, July 17, 2013

Screen shot 2013-07-17 at 16.39.06AN award-winning advertising campaign has been banned after being deemed ‘sexually provocative’ by an industry watchdog.

The campaign saw Renault showing off the racy nature of its new Clio supermini in a quirky viral video.

But because of that and a brace of burlesque dances, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned it.


It showcased a pair of unsuspecting potential male customers taking the new car for a test drive. But the film took a surprising change of direction when the salesman told the driver to ‘hit the Va Va Voom button’.

At a junction, the road around the car suddenly transformed into a Parisian high street thanks to a group of actors and some clever props.

All was well until a troupe of burlesque dancers in lacy lingerie started gyrating around the French supermini, Moulin Rouge-style.


But after one complaint, the video has been pulled from the internet by the ASA – despite the film attracting more than 3.5 million views.

Screen shot 2013-07-17 at 16.40.50The video was even deemed to be so effective that dealers right across the UK judged the video to be the best Manufacturer Marketing Scheme of the Year in this year’s Car Dealer Power Awards (pictured right).

The ASA ruled the video ‘objectified the dancers by portraying them as sexual objects’ and will no longer be shown in its current form.

‘We considered that the length of the scene in question, along with the change in the music and the use of slow motion shots, meant it had a different tone to the rest of the ad,’ said the ASA.

‘We accepted that the Moulin Rouge was associated with Paris and that a scene that referenced it could therefore have some relevance to the theme of the ad, if not to the product itself.

‘However, we were concerned that the ad featured a number of shots of the women’s breasts and bottoms, in which their heads were obscured, and which we considered invited viewers to view the women as sexual objects.’

The sister video which reversed the scenario and portrayed male dancers instead of females has not been banned.

This isn’t the first time Renault has landed itself in hot water, back in 2003 an advert for the Renault Megane was not permitted to be shown before 7.30pm because it featured close-ups of bottoms accompanied by Groove Armada’s song ‘I See You Baby (Shaking That Ass)’.

James Batchelor's avatar

James – or Batch as he’s known – started at Car Dealer in 2010, first as the work experience boy, eventually becoming editor in 2013. He worked for Auto Express as editor-at-large and was the face of Carbuyer’s YouTube reviews. In 2020, he went freelance and now writes for a number of national titles and contributes regularly to Car Dealer. In October 2021 he became Car Dealer's associate editor.



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