For years, a team of intrepid painters has traversed the Tour de France route with a single mission: remove road paint that will offend some of the millions of Tour viewers tuning in throughout July. Some of it is political or rude, but most of it is phallic.
“People draw genitals, and I have no idea why, but that’s every year," dong patroller Patrick Dancoisn told the Wall Street Journal in 2019. "You can’t stop human stupidity.”
As the Journal pointed out six years ago, you also can't stop creativity. Or capitalism. Today, we've got a bit of both.
Peppering our inboxes for the last few days has been a press release from car brand Škoda. Nothing unusual about that this time of year. Škoda has a long history with the bicycle; it started as a bicycle manufacturer in 1895, eight years before the first Tour de France in 1903. "Cycling is in our DNA," said Meredith Kelly, Global Head of Marketing at Škoda, in a press release about the stunt. Škoda is a major sponsor of both the men's and women's races, including providing vehicles for the race organizer and other staff to drive around France in. And it seems to know a good marketing opportunity when it sees one.
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