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12 November 2019

The new Renault Clio advert is a gay love story of epic proportions – WATCH

We might have something in our eye...

By Will Stroude

LGBTQ-inclusive advertising is thankfully more and more common in 2019, but Renault might have just blown the competition out of the water with a new TV commercial that social media users are calling “possibly the greatest ad of the year.”

The French car manufacturer’s latest ad celebrating 30 years of its popular Clio hatchback has wowed viewers with a moving two-minute gay love storythat’s had many reaching for the tissues.

Initially set in the 1990s, the ad follows a young British girl who goes on an exchange programme to France, where she strikes up a touching friendship with a young French girl.

The short film charts the girls’ relationship over the following 30 years, as they fall in love, are torn apart by homophobia and societal expectations, and eventually reunite as adults following a dash across The Channel.

Set to an acoustic John Lewis Christmas ad-ified version of Oasis’ ‘Wonderwall’, it’s a unexpectedly affecting watch that has since racked up more than 60,000 views on YouTube since last Thursday (7 Thursday).

Stunned viewers shared their love of the story on social media, with one declaring it “possibly the greatest ad of the year”.

“This is fantastic. Well done ⁦@renault_uk⁩ for showing that people in the LGBT+ community are just that – people. We love and are loved”, wrote one Twitter user.

Another joked: “Probably the only thing that would make me buy a car.”

Adam Wood, marketing director of Renault UK, said: “We wanted to humanise and celebrate, not just thirty years of progress of the Renault Clio, but also the progress made within culture, society and life in that time.”

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