For the 1925 World’s Fair, the Eiffel Tower stopped being only a monument and became an enormous electric word. André Citroën’s surname appeared in giant illuminated letters on three faces of the structure. Roughly 250,000 colored bulbs turned the iron lattice into a vertical advertisement visible across the Paris night.

Lighting designer Fernand Jacopozzi organized the display. Each letter stood about thirty meters high, so the brand name was not mounted on the tower like a signboard; it occupied the tower’s height as an architectural effect. The lights first appeared in 1925 and, in changing forms, remained associated with the structure through 1936.

The transformation worked because it used the tower’s existing identity. The Eiffel Tower already represented engineering, height, and modern spectacle. Citroën temporarily converted those qualities into product advertising without hiding the landmark underneath. The monument remained recognizable while its three lit faces spelled something commercially specific. Paris had erected a structure that could be seen as a building, a beacon, and a symbol. For more than a decade, it also became a branded lamp large enough to write one name directly onto the skyline.