Last week i was delighted to be asked to create a set of cakes to mark 25 years since the first Renault Clio was launched. The first model was launched in March 1991 to replace the famous Renault 5 that lasted almost 2 generations and is still used today by everyone from young boy racers to parents doing the school drop off.
The Clio was named after the greek word meaning ‘made or to make famous’ and sold 13 million cars worldwide since it’s launch. Nearly 2 million of those can be found in the U.K, which all started with the original advert featuring the dreamy French girl called Nicole, which has pretty much made me want to have a french girlfriend ever since, and her equally suave ‘Papa’, which stole the hearts of the British public, aswell as helping shift a heck of a lot of Clio’s for Renault!
To help celebrate the launch i was asked to create 10 cake versions of the new Renault Clio’s, which were to be delivered in birdcages to magazine’s and publishers around London to promote the anniversary, and to tie in with a full size version of the car to be displayed in King’s Cross Station in a giant birdcage! The idea was that the birdcage itself was covered in padlocks and the public were given the chance to try and unlock the padlocks to be in with a chance to win a car! The giant version of the birdcage was revealed by one of the U.K’s best known French exports in the form of debonair maitre d’- Fred Sirieix (that bloke who welcomes the diners into the restaurant on Channel 4’s First Dates).
A few years later, Renault nailed the advertising campaign yet again by making French football superstar Thierry Henry it’s face, asking the question “What is Va Va Voom?”, which the U.K took to so much that in 2004 the phrase ‘Va Va Voom’ was entered into the English Dictionary!
It was an absolute pleasure to create these designs for such an iconic car, and with it being 55 years next year since the launch of the Cortina i ask, are you reading this, Ford?
