The caravan was at its height between 1930 and the mid-1960s, before television and especially television advertising was established in France. Advertisers competed to attract public attention. Motorcycle acrobats performed for the Cinzano apéritif company and a toothpaste maker, and an accordionist, Yvette Horner, became one of the most popular sights as she performed on the roof of a Citroën Traction Avant.Le Petit Bleu de Lot-et-Garonne, France, 20 July 2005 The modern Tour restricts the excesses to which advertisers are allowed to go but at first anything was allowed. The writer Pierre BostPierre Bost was a journalist and playwright known for the prolific film and stage scripts he wrote in the 1940s. He died in 1975. lamented: "This caravan of 60 gaudy trucks singing across the countryside the virtues of an apéritif, a make of underpants or a dustbin is a shameful spectacle. It bellows, it plays ugly music, it's sad, it's ugly, it smells of vulgarity and money.""Cette caravane de soixante camions barriolés qui chantent à travers la campagne les vertus d'un apéritif, d'un caleçon ou d'une boîte à ordures fait un honteux spectacle. Cela crie, cela fait de la sale musique, c'est laid, c'est triste, c'est bête, cela sue la vulgarité et l'argent." – Laget, Serge (1990), La Saga du Tour de France, Découvertes Gaillard, France, . Legend says people in remote areas ran into their houses at the sight of a giant model black lion on the roof of a car promoting Lion Noir shoe polish in 1930.
The caravan was at its height between 1930 and the mid-1960s, before television and especially television advertising was established in France. Advertisers competed to attract public attention. Motorcycle acrobats performed for the Cinzano apéritif company and a toothpaste maker, and an accordionist, Yvette Horner, became one of the most popular sights as she performed on the roof of a Citroën Traction Avant.Le Petit Bleu de Lot-et-Garonne, France, 20 July 2005 The modern Tour restricts the excesses to which advertisers are allowed to go but at first anything was allowed. The writer Pierre BostPierre Bost was a journalist and playwright known for the prolific film and stage scripts he wrote in the 1940s. He died in 1975. lamented: "This caravan of 60 gaudy trucks singing across the countryside the virtues of an apéritif, a make of underpants or a dustbin is a shameful spectacle. It bellows, it plays ugly music, it's sad, it's ugly, it smells of vulgarity and money.""Cette caravane de soixante camions barriolés qui chantent à travers la campagne les vertus d'un apéritif, d'un caleçon ou d'une boîte à ordures fait un honteux spectacle. Cela crie, cela fait de la sale musique, c'est laid, c'est triste, c'est bête, cela sue la vulgarité et l'argent." – Laget, Serge (1990), La Saga du Tour de France, Découvertes Gaillard, France, . Legend says people in remote areas ran into their houses at the sight of a giant model black lion on the roof of a car promoting Lion Noir shoe polish in 1930.