Anybody remember the Renault Megane "Gisburn" advert form a year or so ago?
It was almost a short film, with a tongue in cheek attitude, that set out to see if the Renault Megane (notable a Grey R.S. 250) could effectively increase the sex appeal of a small English village, where no Meganes were previously owned.
Heres the short televised version of the advert...
And here is the full "short film" version...
For those that have suffered a sense of humour lobotomy, it did not necessarily got down well, especially with some of the locals! Thats said, some complain they may have been led into a false sense of security, not knowing exactly how it was all going to be portrayed, although, as per usual, that seems to be a very small and select few. Apparently even the pub the "White Bull" hosted a party in conjunction with Renault for the residents of Gisburn.
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/8296769.Anger_as_Renault_TV_advert_pokes_fun_at_Gisburn/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1298645/Villagers-fury-French-mock-English-village-new-car-advert.html
Anyway… I've been working in the general area for several months of this year and have been staying in a very nice hotel called the Stirk House Hotel which is short drive up the A59 out of Gisburn Village.
As the Megane advert had been out over a year by this point, and my memory being worse for wear, i never twigged on at first, but did alway have this odd memory recollection of a French accent saying the word Gisburn, and if i had to put that phonetically it would be something along the lines of "jeeezbourn", yet had no idea why!
It wasn't until months later that a friend of mine reminded my of the fact and it all fell into place, and i felt a bit silly!
Due to a cock up with a rental car in the past few weeks, i ended up travelling to my place of work recently and couldn't let up on the chance to get a quick snap of mine near the entrance to the town!
A little bit dark and terrible weather i must admit! Plus i didn't want to annoy and traffic! Thankfully its a very quiet area, and an extremely pleasant and genuinely nice place.
But heres my GT sitting at the threshold of the village...
