Consumers’ enhanced awareness of safety
issues is at the core of this amusing
“crashtest” commercial from Renault. We
witness a number of comparative crashtests
designed to show us which country
produces the safest car. Yet instead of
actual cars being crash-tested, we see
enormous samples of typical national
dishes getting slammed against a wall
(all this to the camp sounds of the original
30s version of “J’attendrai,” a French
standard): a giant German weisswurst,
Japanese sushi and Swedish crispbread
do not, however, fare too well. Only the
French “baguette” turns out to have the
necessary crumple zone, thus proving
the spot’s tagline: “The safest cars come
from France.”