I really like the Renault Megane but the current TV ad irritates me massively. I have to turn it off. The conceit is that there are sorts of things you promise you'd never do in life  "You'd never get a mobile...or a computer....you'd never love anyone else....or have kids etc etc". Well, apparently there was a time when I swore I'd never get a Renault. Like many, I don't remember ever doing that but apparently now is the time I should re-assess the brand.

This ad is wrong on so many levels it's hard to know where to start. Renault is not a 'Marmite brand'. Consumers don't love it or hate it. Most are utterly ambivalent. "I've gone for a Renault this time.." "Oh, have you?" would be the natural, slightly bored response. Most people, with the possible exception of a Jeremy Clarkson, have never vowed to shun Renault for all time. They're not that bothered either way. And to equate it with vowing never to have children is simply incredible. It's just in research, when forced to answer a question they've never asked themselves, some will have said "No, I've never really thought of getting a Renault"...but you can hardly equate that with passionate dislike.

But even if you believe a significant percentage of consumers have a passionate loathing for dear old Renault, is this really the right strategy for today? Surely the challenge in a recession is to persuade people who actually quite like Renaults to go and get a new one now, rather than delay their purchase by 2 years? Which is what car buyers are currently doing. This is NOT the time to try and convert refuseniks. Especially ones that don't really exist.

And the soundtrack is dreadful.