The publicity caravan Part I
In 2006, I noticed that the publicity caravan was less entertaining than
it was in 2005.
Waiting for the race to arrive is a bit boring when you have nothing else to do.
Some people eat and drink or read. Others watch TV or take a nap. I painted
whenever I could. For most of the spectators, there is nothing to do.
People need entertainment. That is where the caravane publicitaire
(Publicity caravan) comes in, I think.
This publicity caravan is a source of entertainment, if not the only one.
The caravan is associated with "freebies". In French they are called
"cadeaux (presents, gifts)". The participants of the caravan want publicity.
Some of them advocate the awareness of our environment. It was
ÉCO EMBALLAGES, who quietly drove trash cans (Smart Fourtwo inside)
and gave out NO freebies in 2006. Since their message was, and still is, NOT
to litter the street and other places, they did not distribute anything.
It was considerate for them to do so. The downside was that it did not work!
This year, they got smater; they brought two percussionists and entertained
us with the music. Their caravan was better.
I think the winner of the caravane publicitaire in 2006 was Skoda. Skoda had
enough exposure as the supplier of the official cars. In addition to that,
they had a bunch of dancers with that catchy "S. K. O. D. A. ... S. K. O. D. A.
(in French)" song. It still rings in my ears. The music was from a song called,
I think, Disco or something. The original song goes, "D. I. S. C. O. ..."
It was a bit disappointing to find that the number of female dancers in
the whole caravan was way down in 2006. In 2005 there were at least
two sets of female dancers on modified buses or trucks. Please don't take this
comment as a sexist statement. Well, if you are offended, you can write a
comment on this blog entry and let me know.
The freebies are souvenirs. I wanted to have one of each for souvenirs.
When I had more than two, I gave the extra to kids or bartered them for the
ones that I did not have.
You can not get enough of those which you can consume later, like
the ground coffee beans from "CAFÉ GRAND MÈRE", that tasty meat
product from "COCHONOU", those elastic snacks from "HARIBO", the
mineral water bottles from "NESTLÉ AQUAREL" or "NESQUIK".
The most practical freebie was the yellow sacoche (a sack) from
"LCL - LE CRÉDIT LYONNAIS". I used it to carry water bottles when
riding my bike.
Well, all the above is something that I felt in 2006. Now I am going to write
about what I saw, obtained and felt in 2007.
Here, I introduce only a handful of caravan vehicles. I will take picutures of
the freebies sometime later and post the entire collection of my
Tour de France 2007 publicity caravan freebies.
This is the caravan car from the organizer. Very spectacular! NOT!
This car does not give anything so it was not so popular.
The LCL Time Trial man! He does not pedal. The animals on Caisse
d'Epargne caravan trucks do pedal although one of them stopped
doing so sometime later.
The lion, if I remember correctly, is the symbol of LCL, the bank who
sponsors the Tour de France.
This American cartoon was plugging its movie version. The Englishman
I met and talked at Stage 2 ravitaillement swore that he and his wife
did not see this "Les Simpson" caravan in his home land. I guess (I know
I am guessing too much) that in French grammar a family name does not
take a plural form. The family name "Simpson" takes "the Simpsons" form
when it refers to the family in English grammar.
This artargas caravan gave out key chains and I think a safety vest. I did
not get that vest.
"La vache qui rit" (reads la-vash-kiri) was very popular. I saw and heard
adults shout the name. Later I learned that vache meant cow when a
sticker on certain cheese said it was made from the milk of vache. It was
not too difficult to guess. I knew that qui meant who. I kept wondering
the cow that does what? And much later (Stage 20), I learned that rit
meant smiles as in 'she smiles' from a Dane, who is a Team CSC fan and
fluent in French. So "La vache qui rit" means the cow that smiles.
It made sense in the end. The logo itself was actually self-explanatory.
This supermarket chain is one of the main sponsors of the Tour de France.
The dot jersey is presented by this supermarket.
The Australian team, Tour down under and Road Sign, had a good Tour
as Cadel Evans had an excellent Tour this year.
The four-pack-mobile.
CFTC goods:?
Another Haribo-mobile. Photoed at Stage 4 start.
