Citroën on the Eiffel Tower
Citroën1925
Citroën on the Eiffel Tower is a 1925 illuminated installation for Citroën.
Why it works
On 4 July 1925, during the Paris decorative-arts exposition, the Eiffel Tower came alive with an animated light show that ended by spelling CITROËN down its height. The scheme was devised by lighting engineer Fernand Jacopozzi, who needed someone to pay for it; André Citroën did, and got his name on three faces of the tower in letters roughly 30 metres tall, lit by about 250,000 bulbs according to the French broadcast archive INA and Autocar. Autocar's correspondent at the time called it the most remarkable flashing advertising sign yet created, while INA notes that some Paris papers attacked it as a disfigurement of the capital. It is studied as a landmark case of a brand turning a national monument into its own medium: Citroën renewed the display for about a decade, adding a giant clock in 1933 according to the tower's official history.
Techniques
- Transfer Spells the brand's name down the Eiffel Tower in giant lit letters, borrowing a national monument as its medium.
- Guerrilla and ambient Turns a city landmark into an animated light sign, a surprising placement that some Paris papers attack as a disfigurement.
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