It used to be that all of Gaul was conquered by the Romans. All of Gaul ? No, one little village in the North-West of the country managed to take a stand against the foreign conquerer, relying on their own traditions and a healthy diet of wild boar, washed down with a dash of magic potion. Well, it would seem that those times are gone, as a new ad campaign for McDonald’s in France shows the entire village of Astérix celebrating yet another victory in, yes, you guessed it, a McDonald’s restaurant. They’ve tied their bard up outside as is customary (even though I don’t know what that says about McD’s non-discrimination standards) and are gorging away on… well, I’m not sure, really. Actually showing Obélix munching a Big Mac seems to have been too much of a blasphemy for the Uderzo people after all.
Making things worse, other ads in this campaign feature some generic Cinderella and the creep from Scream, lobbing our beloved Gaul into a rather disreputable part of the popular culture domain, if you ask me.
Oh, and yes, McD’s in France are, indeed, in green. It’s an image thing.
(thanks to Le Blog du Bulle d’Encre for the tip)
September 2nd, 2010 at 4:19 pm
Just showed this to my French wife… She pretty much lost it!
September 6th, 2010 at 9:22 am
At first glance this seems like a subversive ad – a critique of contemporary France such as an anti-globalist organization (or a French nationalist one) could only dream of producing. Just consider it: the entirety of France has been subdued by corporate forces, and the only ones who dare speak about it have been either co-opted or tied up and silenced. But for this to be a proper Mickey D’s ad… It’s just baffling. Seems counter-productive in so many ways. And I’m not even French.