Who tells France best between Emmanuel Macron, Fabien Roussel and Nicolas Sarkozy? None of the three, according to Raphaël Llorca, co-director of the “Brands, Consumer Imaginaries and Politics” Observatory at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation. In his latest work The national novel of brands (L’Aube & Fondation Jean-Jaurès, 2023), he notes that politicians today no longer know how to embody France, the one that ignites hearts, imaginations, with truths and clichés.
Faced with this disembodiment, it would be the brands – French or not – who would have taken over, sublimating France with great marketing and national narrative. For 20 minutesRaphaël Llorca dissects five ads from five brands which, according to him, talk about France in a way that no politician can now do.
Burger King VS Emmanuel Macron – The myth of the grumpy Frenchman
The political message that didn’t work: Emmanuel Macron, speaking of “refractory Gauls” in Denmark in August 2018. A few months later, the “yellow vests” appeared
What is advertising? (see here) In 2022, the American brand Burger King released an advertising spot where several foods – steaks, onions, nuggets – complain. The steaks grumble about the heat of cooking and the marks the grill leaves on them, the onions mock the person who cuts them, crying: “Go cut some tomatoes instead.” And gnagnagna, it stings the eyes”, etc. At the end of the spot? “Our foods are 100% French.”
Raphaël Llorca’s analysis: “It’s a very creative way of renewing the discourse around Made in France, which is very dear to consumers. This demand has evolved over time: now, consumers demand products that embody France, not just that come from there. Made in France becomes Made of France, a strategy historically started by McDonald’s and taken up by its competitor here, in a comical and effective way. We laugh at the cliché, and it is so accepted that it becomes, in a return of the stigma, a marketing argument, a source of pride.”
Reflections of France VS Fabien Roussel – Lands united by the Republic
The political message that didn’t work: Fabien Roussel and his “Good wine, good meat, good cheese, for me, it’s French gastronomy” in 2021. In the presidential election the following year? 2.3% of the votes in the first round.
What is advertising? (see here) A Reflets de France advert focused on each region, its landscapes and its flagship dish. Guérande with its salt, Bordeaux and its wine, Franche Comté and its eponymous cheese… Very important note for the analysis: the spot opens and ends with the “Reflets de France” logo alone. In the intro, the text “Welcome to France”, and in conclusion, “The best of France”.
Raphaël Llorca’s analysis: “’France is different Frances that have been sewn together,’ said the historian Fernand Braudel. France, culturally multiple, has always had a unitary aspiration, linked in its differences first by the monarchy – the figure of the king who holds the country in his single body – then the Republic, with the learning of a French language common….
It is this ambition of unity through the multiple that we find in Reflets de France. Each time, a local product, specific to a region, a location (Normandy cider, Lyonnaise quenelles, Montélimar nougats, etc.). But with the clearly visible parent brand, which covers each of the products, overlooks them and unites them. Result: the local product is only one of the reflections of France, the real name of the purchase. Reflections of France is the resolution by a brand of the centuries-old conflict between the Jacobins and their desire for extreme centralization and the Girondins, supporters of greater territorial autonomy. »
Nike VS Eric Zemmour – The romantic past of France of musketeers, Gascons and poets
The political message that didn’t work: Eric Zemmour in his campaign clip for the 2022 presidential election. Images of Joan of Arc, the knights and the “French genius”, with this conclusion: “it is no longer time to reform France, but to save it “. Result ? 6% in the first round.
What is advertising? (see here) In 2011, Nike became the equipment supplier for the French football team, after forty years under the Adidas banner. To mark the occasion, the famous comma brand released an advertising spot where the rapper Oxmo Puccino slams Cyrano de Bergerac’s tirade “At the end of the sending, I touch”.
Raphaël Llorca’s analysis: “A pillar of the novel is the veneration of the romantic past and ideals of panache. The whole difficulty is knowing how to incorporate this love of France’s past without having a backward-looking vision, where the present would only be synonymous with the loss of French excellence. The tour de force of this advertisement is to take a work which embodies France at its greatest – the poetry of Edmond Rostand and the romantic panache of Cyrano – and to update it using a contemporary rapper, but also known for his poetry, Oxmo Poccino, applied to the panache of modern times, football. »
SNCF VS Lionel Jospin – The French geography of contradictions
The political message that didn’t work: Lionel Jospin, justifying his candidacy for the presidential election on France 2, February 21, 2002. He then expressed “mixed feelings. It’s up to me, after five years of government, harnessed to the cart, to snort in the field of democracy. Two months later, it’s the crash: the former Prime Minister does not pass the first round.
What is advertising? (see here) In 2021, SNCF is launching a new spot. Parade of landscapes through the train window – hills, valleys. – with a slam by Gaël Faye, a text centered on our contradictions. Final punchline: “We are not being in bad faith, we are just a little paradoxical; We are not square, we are hexagonal »
Raphaël Llorca’s analysis: “Obviously, the contradictory image of French is nothing new. He likes to laugh and cry, he is progressive but also attached to his past and heritage… The strength of this spot is its images and its punchline ”We are not square but hexagonal”. Our contradictions come from our geography: France is not symmetrical. Here we are reconnecting with a long tradition of historian-geography. There is no history without geography. our culture, our character comes from the topology of our mountains, our rivers, and all these spaces visible through the train window…”
Heetch VS Nicolas Sarkozy – The obsession and fantasies of the suburbs
The political message that didn’t work: Everyone, but if we only have to remember one, it’s difficult not to mention Nicolas Sarkozy and his desire to “clean up” the neighborhoods with karcher, on June 19, 2005. A few months later, France is shaken by violent riots after the deaths of Zyed and Bouna.
What is advertising? (see here) Heetch’s commercial uses real quotes from journalists and politicians – “dark neighborhood”, “dormitory town”, “overwhelming situation”, “the ideal place to grow the seed of violence” -, but with background images of suburbs of Ile-de-France which contradict the point: laughter, dancing, green space… End of the spot: Heetch, the VTC which goes further.
Raphaël Llorca’s analysis: “The suburbs are both an omnipresent and anxiety-provoking French theme, and a political blind spot. The strength of the VTC Heetch brand is to take on this theme to seek to shed light on reality differently, by giving a profoundly humanist and optimistic image. The confrontation with politics is also assumed head-on: quotes from journalists or elected officials are cited, to illustrate that the suburbs are poorly represented and poorly known. That a brand like Heetch can talk about the suburbs better than a politician is perhaps the best illustration of the book’s point. »