25 Aug 2012

Dubo, Dubon, Dubonnet in Paris, 1983

Large hand painted sign on a wall in France advertising Dubonnet
© Scott Phillips

I had to share this as it is a brilliant example of the classic ‘Dubo, Dubon, Dubonnet’ campaign with illustrations in the hand painted form. It was captured by Scott Phillips in Paris in 1983 and, on his blog, he describes how he was able to create this wonderful image.

The original artwork for the 1932 campaign was produced by French artist A. M. Cassandre and those painted on walls were copied from this. The design itself was created to be easily read from fast moving vehicles and these roadside executions were soon painted around the country. This example clearly dominates the street scene, although appears to be better viewed from street level rather than inside a car.

A radio spot was included in the campaign and as pointed out here,

The hidden meaning (in French) becomes obvious, when you hear the words. Dubo, Dubon, Dubonnet sounds like ‘It’s nice, it’s good, It’s Dubonnet’.

Thanks for sharing your photo Scott, if you’re interested this blog has more posts about France and French ghostsigns.

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