What does a contemporary French family look like?

French automaker Renault tried to answer that question in a TV spot for its Grand Scenic model, a family car that seats seven comfortably.

Set to Django Reinhardt’s Minor Swing and directed by David Gray for Publicis Conseil, the spot shows the daily routine of a father.


This particular father’s life, at least in the afternoon hours, seems centered not on work but on his children and their various activities.

The narrator reveals that he’s father to five children; and at the end, the viewer learns that he also is bringing home the neighbor’s son.

Statistically, being father to five is unusual enough, but what makes this one stand out is that the narrator freely –even cheerfully– explains that he has been married to several different women.

At this point, I have a confession to make: I don’t know how many times the narrator has been married. Twice? Three times? I really can’t tell. I understand that “the twins” were born to his “current wife”, but when she was married to someone else; Marie the dancer is a child they had together. But I’m not sure the mother shown giving birth is the same person as the woman who welcomes the narrator and children home.

Adding another level of mystery is the case of Tom. He’s an older boy, and the narrator “just learned” that he is Tom’s father. Given this admission –cheerfully made– and the actor’s age, his mother would seem to be someone other than “Helen”, the “first wife” whom the narrator married at an elaborate wedding, shown in the spot and which the narrator remembers wistfully.

Part of the mystery is this: Tom has been excised from the spot now shown on French television. The original French spot had been broadcast, then made Tom disappear. Why?

Divorce can’t be the issue that led to Tom’s ejection. Nice though he may be, the narrator is not a widower and does not seem to be seriously in contention for a prize as loyal husband; at the least, he’s a serial monogamist.

Perhaps fathering a child without being married to the mother offends carbuyers’ sensibilities? A possibility, except that in the Italian version of the spot, Tom is very much present, and has the same back story (“I just learned was my son …”). Can French sensibilities on this point really be more conservative than Italians’?

The most promising hypothesis I’ve found is this: Renault or viewers objected to the idea would have conceived a child without knowing about the pregnancy, in other words that son Tom was the fruit of an extremely casual liaison, where his partner either could not contact him (not knowing his phone number or name), or did not want to. In either case, not exactly behavior consistent with the role of dependable father-chauffeur (although the narrator does forget the twins…). Perhaps Italians are more sophisticated in dealing with such situations.

Another mystery: the spot exists in an English-language version. This version is great, because the narrator’s voice, in English, strikes me as more perceptive and knowing than the French voice. But the English version harbors another deep mystery: the names, though they remain French names, have been changed from the French version. Perhaps viewers in English-language countries expect a French carmaker to show French families; or perhaps English viewers are willing to accept all kinds of unconventional behavior from French people.