Renault launched a new advertising campaign for the Mégane to show that a car can change a town for better. The major part of the Mégane Experiment is a film, featuring a man named ‘Claude’— he goes to Gisburn, Lancashire, where there are no Méganes, and convinces villagers that these cars really can bring ‘joie de vivre’. He came from Menton, Côte d’Azur, France, where there are many of these vehicles, and is always ready to tell everyone about Mégane’s positive influence on people’s lives.

Over the course of the week, he calls a meeting to explain that villages and towns with more Méganes have higher fertility rates, berates the locals for their lack of ‘joie’, convinces the owner of the White Bull to convert his pub’s name into the ‘Boeuf Blanc’ and hire an accordion player, teaches the meaning of ‘joie de vivre’ at the primary school, gets interviewed by the local press and, finally, arranges the Festival de Joie. His adventures were recorded by a creative team headed by Oscar-nominated director Henry-Alex Rubin, who shot 48 hours of film over five days and described Claude as a «French Borat with a heart.»

The integrated campaign, developed by Publicis London, encompasses TV, cinema, national press and digital including pre-roll and banner advertising, website TheMeganeExperiment.com and activity on social-media platforms including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

“We wanted a campaign which broke from the norm, so a humorous, lighthearted Anglo-French cultural comparison of two such distinct villages works well for our brand. The Mégane is an iconic symbol of French ‘joie de vivre’ and we’re hopeful that getting more of them on the road over here will not just bring a little more happiness to the residents of Gisburn, but also the rest of Britain too,” says Phil York, Marketing Director, Renault UK, comments.