What are Citroen playing at?

Switching on the telly on April 1st, I was greeted by Citroen's ad for the new C5. I was on the phone at the time and genuinely thought I had seen it wrong, 'Unmistakeably German'...you what? I thought that this must be some sort of April fool thing, but no. After asking a good friend of mine from Euro RSCG, it's a campaign they've plowed millions into. They've got a microsite and everything!

Citroen need branding. This campaign is a perfect example of how individual advertising campaigns that are not underpinned by a proper brand proposition, clear vision and values can end up looking completely ridiculously random. Without branding, Citroen, to me, are coming across crazier than ever... and not in a good way. You can't go from dancing robotic cars and ridiculous Germanic tomfoolery without thinking, what is this brand actually saying to me?

Clearly back at Citroen HQ, the clients must be thinking 'This is really clever, how clever is this? Positioning the C5 as outrageously German, when we're a French brand', which makes me think that all they're bothered about is selling individual cars on purported cleverness and wackiness, rather than positioning the brand, and moving on from there. Branding doesn't mean that you lose this creativity, god no, it just means that Citroen will have more of a grounding and more coherence. The microsite culture feeds into this incoherence too. I am not a fan. Brands should keep everything tight.

I hope Citroen see sense soon by calming down a bit and looking at their efforts more holistically. I am off to Paris this weekend, strangely enough! Au revoir!