Back in 1984, Peugeot ran a James Bond-style ad to promote its 205 model, replete with helicopter chases, explosions and glamorous women. In 2014 the ad returned… with a digital twist. Launched on YouTube on October 1st 2014, the reboot of '80s campaign "The Legend," has already generated piled up more than 12 million views in a month.
To launch the new 205 GTI, French car giant Peugeot commissioned a breathtaking cinematic James Bond-style adventure in which the car and its darkly-brooding driver were chased down a snow-and-ice-clad alpine mountain by a giant attack helicopter firing missiles.
The ad, titled “The Legend Returns" by BETC Paris, was also shared 38,895 in the first week.
The brand has taken a digital first approach to generate buzz. The ad will be shown during October on the internet, in November in cinemas and on TV in December.
The ad has a digital twist, with users encouraged to click on a hidden wolf in the film to be entered into a prize draw.
A Peugeot spokesman said; ‘This realistic 3D photo film revisits on of Peugeot’s most emblematic advertising films, “The bombardier” created by Gérard Pires (Taxi, Sky Fighters) in 1984 for the 205 GTi.
‘Staged in the style of a movie blockbuster, the challenge was to combine seamlessly the cinematography techniques of 30 year ago with the best of current 3D animation to create a spectacle ‘appropriate to the sporty nature of the Peugeot 208 GTi 30th.’
Peugeot said: ‘The initial few seconds of movie are taken from the original 1984 film reel which was digitised.
But the rest of the movie, from the point where the new Peugeot 205 GTi of 1984 being pursued by the attack helicopter is overtaken by the new Peugeot 208 of 2014 – has had to be reworked and seamlessly joined frame by frame.’
‘We are reinterpreting the hot hatch with a more radical version of the 208 GTi, 30 years after the original 205 GTi first thrilled car fans.’
View the original film here:
