Škoda backs women's cycling with route campaign

The campaign uses the visibility of the men's race to raise awareness of the women's event

AMV BBDO has launched a campaign for Škoda that transforms graffiti found along the Tour de France route into artwork promoting the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.

The campaign uses the visibility of the men's race to raise awareness of the women's event, which begins after the Tour de France. Škoda has supported the Tour de France for more than 20 years and has partnered with the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift since its relaunch in 2022.

Campaign repurposes race route graffiti

Each year, Tour de France organisers deploy a team known as the Eraser Men to remove offensive graffiti from the race route before television coverage begins.

For selected stages of the 2026 race, Škoda has equipped the team with stencils created by French illustrator Celine Dormeau and London-based illustrator Erin Aniker. The designs incorporate the existing graffiti and transform it into illustrations promoting the women's race and the #WatchTheFemmes campaign.

Initiative highlights women's cycling

The campaign seeks to increase awareness of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift by reaching audiences watching the men's race. According to Škoda, the men's Tour de France attracts a global television audience of more than 3.5 billion, while the women's race reaches around 23 million viewers.

Meredith Kelly, CMO, Škoda Auto: "Škoda started as a bicycle brand and has a long history of supporting the cycling community. As a brand that is known for bringing creative solutions to real-life challenges, we chose this playful and bold approach to build awareness to women's cycling and give it the visibility it deserves. The Eraser Men do their best to remove as many of these marketings as possible, but there are always more to deal with; these stencils allow us to turn something negative into something positive, to help promote the women's race and encourage more people to watch it."

Campaign extends across social media

The artwork will appear along the Tour de France route throughout the race before extending to Instagram, TikTok and Facebook from 24 July.

Supporting campaign assets include images showing the transformation from the original graffiti to the completed illustrations, alongside photography from last year's activation.