When the peugeot 206 First introduced in 1999, it caused a sensation in the city car segment. Anyone old enough will remember how customers almost everywhere in the world wanted one as soon as the little Frenchman became available in dealerships. And Peugeot captured the spirit of the French utility to perfection with a famous 206 advertisement in india.
When there’s a will there’s a way. The path found by the young protagonist of the spot to achieve its goal was to follow what a Chinese company adopted as its own name in 2003: BYDof “B.uild Your Dreams” (“Build Your Dreams”). As you can imagine, the firm of the Asian giant had no involvement in this, but the reference came to the hair. This was a time of great change, with the brand adapting its second smallest model to the new millenniumsucceeding the already “great” 205 after 15 years in service.
The ad begins with the man staring at his car, which looks like a Hindustan Ambassador slightly modified white, possibly to avoid certain associations with the famous Indian car, although that was unavoidable. After looking at him for a while, the man pushes him against a wall. And he does the same as he backs up in an apparent effort to reduce the front and rear overhangs.
The next scene shows him employing an elephant in his endeavors, so mysterious at this point that it’s fair to assume he’s simply lost his mind. But what follows doesn’t make him seem much sane: hit the body of the Ambassador with a hammer several times. As his work evolves, he becomes more careful, apparently sculpting his body, and in the late afternoon, he begins to weld.
When his work is apparently done, he opens the torn pages of a magazine and admires the advertisement for the peugeot 206. When you scroll down, you see the result: the Hindustan now looks a lot like the lion utility after an earthquake, but the general shape is there. That doesn’t bother the young man: he is in love with his “new car”. At night, she invites two of her friends out for a walk to woo a lady who seems to admire her fake 206.
Like these shorts where a car keeps running even after crashing multiple times, the ad is just a fun fantasy. It is impossible that the first crash had not destroyed the radiator or that the steel panels front and rear had entered the cabin: the doors of the Ambassador would probably no longer open. The elephant sitting on top of the hood would also drop the engine… In short, no mount would stand up to such treatment.
But none of these details of reality make the ad any less entertaining. On the contrary: if the replica of the 206 followed the correct engineering steps, it would be impossible or too much work for a short announcement. curiously, Peugeot was not present in the Indian market in 1999 and bought the Ambassador name from Hindustan. Now Stellantis is in that market with Citroën, with the C5 Aircross and C3 (CC21, specific to India and Brazil) assembled locally.
Source: Advert Commercial
Via: YouTube
