Un p’tit bulletin en français pour parler de Cindy

Et un petit article pour mes amis bloggeurs Français expatriés. La Nouvelle Star vous connaissez ? C’est un programme de télévison sur M6 genre the X-Factor…

 

Un buzz de fou s’est produit autours d’une canditate cette année, non pas parce qu’elle a gagné, mais parce qu’elle s’est fait éliminer…

 

Depuis son passage à l’émission “Nouvelle Star”, Cindy Sander bénéficie d’une nouvelle notoriété, passant sur de nombreux plateaux TV. Beaucoup sont moqueurs et j’adore tout simplement cette parodie! Déjà-vu ?

Notre Cindy nationale s’est forgée un nouveau look et est entrée en studio pour enregistrer son nouveau titre électro Papillon de Lumière, un titre efficace et autobiographique… Comme le veut l’expression devenue culte, “Céline Dion c’est Céline Dion, Cindy c’est Cindy, un point c’est tout” !

Voici le titre que Cindy dédie aux internautes, à qui elle doit tant !

Bien que Papillon de Lumière ait fait un énorme buzz sur le web, seulement 1977 exemplaires ont été écoulés lors de la première semaine d’exploitation.

CONCLUSION: le buzz ne fait pas le moine (ou la chanteuse)!

L’été va être chaud sur les pistes de danse en France cet été, mais quant à choisir je préfère la Tecktonik !

Feeling thirsty tonight?

I just love the fact it is now trendy to ask for tap water in restaurants ! I was dining out with my friends a few weeks ago and we asked for a glass of Eau de Tap – you should have seen the waitress’ face: priceless!

Since 1945, the consumption of bottled water has experienced spectacular growth in France, in the context of a general development in industrialised beverages in Europe. Initially, mineral water had a clear medical status attached to it. This image changed over the century and bottled water is now seen as just one consumer product among many.

I have now been in France for over a week and have been amazed by the quantity of bottled water ads on TV, ususally two at lunch time. It’s interesting to compare the different product positionnings from one brand to another:

• Evian : déclaréee source de jeunesse par votre corps – Evian helps your body remain young and healthy (UK positionning: Detox with Evian in the UK)
• Vittel: reVitellisez-vous – a very clever pun than also work in English! ReVittelise!
• Contrex: mon contrat minceur – Contrex helps you stay slim (UK positionning: Fashion and Style, Life and Health)
• Volvic la force des volcans : the land of volcanicities

Times are tough for the bottled water market and I wasn’t surprised at all to see a proliferation of new products backed up by above the line campaign (including experiential marketing in Lyon town centre last week-end) for the new Contrex Frisson.

The flavoured water category in the UK is confusing with products such as Volvic Touch of Fruit and This Water coming across as completely different products. This Water (part of the Innocent family), to me, simply isn’t water! Water is not supposed to be pink or yellow, water is supposed to be clear… You can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t (quite) take the country of the girl!

The French have taken a more cautious approach by creating a new product category yet to be defined – it is definitely not water but it’s not quite soda either… Check out the ad for Contrex Frisson below and let me know what you think!

Sacrebleu!

I read in the Metro yesterday that France’s language police have launched a drive to stop a glut of English invading their native tongue. No messing with the French! Terms including ‘email’, ‘blog’ and ‘fast food’ should be banished from the French language… well apparently there are a full 65 pages of banned words on the ministry’s new website launched this week! If anyone happens to have the URL, I’d love to take a look! 

Here are a few examples – looking at the length of the French translation make me feel tired! I wonder how many hours were spent brainstorming French translations…

Click image to enlarge

Chers amis français, j’aimerais vraiment avoir votre opinion sur le sujet! L’Académie Française va-t’elle trop loin, ou a t’elle raison de protéger notre belle langue ? J

118 Project

I am currently holidaying in France and I discovered this striking viral yesterday.

A group of young Geneva firefighters decided to film the clip to end public confusion between their number, 118, and new directory assistance hot-lines. The “118 Project” video features fighters from four local Swiss brigades - some sporting hot pants - dancing and rapping to hip hop beats.

Let me know what you think!

French Presidential Elections 2007 - candidates go viral

There is now less than a month until the first round of the French presidential election on April 22nd.  This post is not about French politics or my political views but about how the French candidates are marketing themselves online. Online politics can be rather dangerous – think John McCain whose myspace page was recently hacked.

I have to admit that I haven’t really looked into what the different candidates have to say but a welcome reminder reached my inbox yesterday.

I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from François Bayrou about his political plans for French expats; I do not live in France anymore and I am somewhat disconnected with what’s going on in the homeland. By sending this email, François Bayrou reached the expat community virally. Moreover, not being in France the easiest way to keep up to date with the elections is the www.  

If you are interested in reading François Bayrou’s email (in French) drop me a line.

Following this viral coup, I decided to investigate how the 4 main candidates were marketing themselves online:  

• Ségolène Royal (socialist/left-wing candidate): A colourful website with unfortunately too much information on the homepage. Ségolène has set up both a blog and a forum.

• François Bayrou (centre candidate): François Bayrou’s website is well designed and easy to navigate. I was pleasantly surprised to see youtube videos on his homepage. Check out The Bayrou webkit especially if you fancy a Bayrou banner for your myspace page!

• Nicolas Sarkozy (centre-right candidate): A very well-designed and modern looking site yet a little too self-centred with the photo-gallery and gift shop (??!!) – a few videos here and there.

• Jean-Marie Le Pen (far right candidate): Jean-Marie has set-up a ‘journal de bord’  to be translated as video-blog. You didn’t expect Mr Le Pen to use an English word such as blog, did you? I also noticed that unlike Mrs Royal, Mr Le Pen does not allow comments on his ‘journal de bord’. Mr Le Pen clearly needs to be taught the meaning of ‘freedom of speech’.

 More political coverage in English here and here.

UPDATE: Sarkozy also sent an email to all French expats registered to vote abroad. Email available on request

Président Chirac is watching your plate

 

I am currently  holidaying in France and I was extremely surpised to see health and nutritional warnings at the bottom of food adverts broadcast on TV, the radio and print media.

This campaign launched on February 28th called Manger Bouger (eat and exercise), aims at educating the population, especially children on what to eat and not to eat. The new warnings include:

• For your health, eat at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables every day
• For your health, exercise regularly
• For your health, avoid foods containing too much fat, too much sugar and too much salt
• For your health, do not snack between meals

Is France also turning into a Big Brother State like the UK?   

That sweet enemy (je t’aime, moi non plus)

It’s a well known fact that the Brits despise the ‘frogs’, while the French despise ‘les roast beefs’.  

 Napoleon once likened the English Channel to a mere “ditch that will be crossed when someone has the boldness to try it.” In 1994, it was permanently breached by the Channel Tunnel — a monument to Anglo-French collaboration that brought London and Paris into day-trip proximity by train. One wonders what Napoleon would have made of that.  

French advertising is all about language, culture and themes, right? I found this little gem in the Gare du Nord during my Parisian trip a couple of weeks ago.

The Battle of Austerlitz was a French victory (victoire) but a British defeat (défaite) and the Battle of Waterloo was a British victory but a French defeat.  

Being open to the world is about understanding cultural differences and diffent point of views.

Question time!

Is Austerlitz station in London or Paris? What about Waterloo station?

Une page de pub

During my short holiday in France over Christmas, I paid particular attention to the world of advertising in France…

Advertising à la Française…

Adverts are  everywhere: on TV, the www, radio, at the cinema, magazines or large advertising boards on the street. Most of the TV channels, either public or pay channels broadcast adverts, each lasting 10-15 seconds. Unlike American channels, French channels show fewer ads, and it’s illegal to broadcast adverts during kids’ programs.  

Ads are generally announced prior to their start with a short jingle such as the one shown below:

 

 

French advertising is all about language, culture and themes…

 

This may be stating the obvious, but in order to understand French ads, one has to have a sound knowledge of the French culture, and of course the French language. Advertising is primarily based around certain predominant French values such as, intellectualism and rhetorical spirit, the body and openness to sexuality and food. As a matter of fact, there were on average 4-5 adverts for cheese on a daily basis at lunchtime!

 

 

Working for a French advertising agency is serious business! A lot of French ads use cultural references and puns. The advert below for LU (part of the Danone group) is a reference to Van Gogh who suffered from dementia and cut off his ear after an argument with Gauguin.

 

France 0 – America 1

There are currently 1000s of American products on the French market, and adverts are often dubbed. This can lead to criticisms of certain products not making the effort to adapt their adverts locally.

 

To my knowledge, frogs and snails are not advertised on French TV

French links on advertising:

• La Publicité, Wikipedia

• Les Méchanismes de la publicité

• La Publicité - Réflexion rhétorique et linguistique

Hey, Thierry! What does ‘va va voum’ mean in French?

I love this print ad for the Renault Clio - Cliché to a certain extent but nevertheless eye-catching.

Sea, Sex et Publicité…

 ‘Tout s’achète: l’amour, l’art, la planète Terre, vous, moi. J’écris ce livre pour me faire virer. Si je démissionnais, je ne toucherais pas d’indemnités.’ 

  ’99 Francs (€14.99)’ by Frédéric Beigbeder.

‘99 francs (€14.99)’  is a wonderfully entertaining post-modernist reality-novel. Octave Parago is a successful advertising creative, and while everybody wants to be him (or perhaps his job?), Octave hates himself. Octave gives the reader a harsh yet hilarious criticism of the advertising industry in France and the impact advertising has on the French society.

If you speak French, you’re in for a treat!