Citroën adverts have written some of the finest pages in the history of advertising. André Citroën was an innovative industrialist who built his renown on ground-breaking initiatives geared to one strategy the automobile for all. t It was he who first indexed repair costs and invented standard parts b| replacement. He was behind the first transcontinental automobile expeditions like the crossing of Africa (la Croisière Noire), manufactured toy Citroëns that faithfully replicated the real thing, and staged the grandiose Eiffel Tower light shows.

When he died in 1935, shortly after his pioneering front-wheel drive Traction saloon was unveiled, he was mourned across Europe as the man who had realized the automobile dream of freedom on the open road.

In the 1960s, publisher and talented art director Robert Delpire set the tone for Citroën advertising with promotional

d literature for the 2CV that allied humour and style. For the avant-garde DS saloon Delpire's agency produced work

featuring outstanding photographs by modern masters like William Klein, Helmut Newton and Sarah Moon.

In the mid-70s came the turn of Jacques Séquéla and his agency. They caught the imagination with a series of commercials for television, by then the dominant advertising medium. Still etched on memories are ads like the herd of wild horses galtoping in chevron formation, the AX on the Great Wall of China and in a Tibetan monastery, and the Visa on an aircraft carrier. More recently we have seen Carl Lewis and Claudia Schiffer turning their talents to the Citroën cause.

Jacques Séguéêla nursed a passion for Citroën cars long before he began advertising them: he was just 20 when he drove a 2CV round the globe a world-first of 100,000 kilometres and 2,247 hours behind the wheel. His account of the entwined destinies of two industries which have shaped the 20th century the automobile and advertising — paints a warm and witty picture of a profoundly modern-minded automobile manufacturer.