Automaker Pushes Its Sleeker Cars by Saying You, Too, Were Ugly in the '90s

The ’80s get a lot of flak for being fashionably challenged, what with all the chrome, crimped hair and shoulder pads. 

But the ’90s weren’t much better, for reasons you’re about to remember.

Created by Rosapark in Paris, Škoda’s “Ugly in the ’90s” campaign promotes an array of new, more sleekly design models by addressing what people think of when they hear the brand’s name at all: Those cars are ugly.

It blames that ugliness on the ’90s. And who are you to judge? You were ugly, too. I wore baggy pants and giant Jamaica shirts. It was really just a bad time for all of us. 

The ad wraps with a few sassy headlight winks from Škoda’s next-gen Kodiaq and Karoq models, followed by a dramatic angled shot of a white Kodiaq. 

The campaign will run across social networks beginning today. In the French market, users can tweet photos of themselves or friends to the brand using hashtag #MocheDansLes90s (“ugly in the ’90s”) to receive, in return, a ’90s-style version of themselves for profile photos.

CREDITS
Brand: Škoda France
Brand Management: Paul Barrocas, Marie-Charlotte Bosvieux, Céline Hahn, Stéphanie Cantau
Agency: Rosapark
Co-founders: Jean-Patrick Chiquiar, Gilles Fichteberg et Jean-François Sacco
Copywriter: Julien Perrard
Art Director: Nicolas Hurez
Managing Director and Strategic Planning Director: Sacha Lacroix
Advising Director: Julien Quidor dit Pasquet
Strategic Planner: Alexandre Ribichesu
Social media manager: Thomas Vincenti
TV production: Elodie Jonquille
Print Production: Justine Dudognon
PR: Theda Braddock
Production: Big
Director: Jean Baptiste Saurel
Producer: Kasia Staniaszek-Choppin
Production Director: Driss Lumbroso 
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