Miquelon.org – The Fighting French

Ref : The Subway Affaire – “France and chicken, somehow it just goes together”

Subway has published an apology. Here is a copy of the email they have been e-mailing to those who have sent in a complaint.

“Thank you for taking the time to share your comments regarding one of our current advertisements.

We apologize if you were offended. It was certainly not our intention to insult anyone with the design of the ad.

We understand that what might not be offensive to people in one part of the world may be offensive to people elsewhere. As a result, we have instructed all of our restaurants participating in this promotion to remove the advertisements immediately.

The ad was designed to promote a French-style chicken sandwich, The Chicken Cordon Bleu. It was our intention to show to customers that fine French cuisine and our chicken sandwiches are a complimentary pairing.

Again, thank you for taking time to express your views. Your input and concern is appreciated.”

WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (AFP) – Two years after relations between the US and France soured over the Iraq war, French-bashing in America appears alive and well in light of a recent ad campaign by a fast-food chain linking France and cowardice. (…)

Marc Saint-Aubin du Cormier, another French native who created a website to monitor anti-French sentiment in the United States and Canada, agrees.

“There is a kind of anti-French streak in the background of the culture of America,” he told AFP. (…)

Chazelle and Cormier said one reason such comments largely go unnoticed is because the French expatriate community in the United States is fairly small and has no active lobby groups.

• News @ Yahoo.com
• The Tocqueville Connection
• Daily News of Pakistan
• TurkishPress.com
• Expatica
• Japan Today

6 Octobre 2005 – S’en prendre aux Français reste un sport national aux USA
AFP Infos Economiques
Économie et finance, jeudi 6 octobre 2005
Par Jocelyne ZABLIT

WASHINGTON – Deux ans et demi après la sensible détérioration des relations entre Paris et Washington en raison de l’opposition de la France à la guerre en Irak, s’en prendre aux Français demeure un sport national aux Etats-Unis. (Suite)

Readers of Miquelon.org might recall last year’s offensive ad campaign by Carl’s Junior. It seems the advertising world is quite fond of recycling bad ideas, and this year the Maryland regional office of Subway (Doctor’s Associates Inc) has decided to indulge in a bit of French Bashing to make a buck or two. Read the rest of this entry »