Why? Well, among other things, for hating billboards. Max Colchester of the Wall Street Journal reports:
On Friday, Alex Baret plans to board a train to central Paris, pull out a can of spray paint and deface a billboard, as he has done every last Friday of the month for more than two years. The slogan he prefers to leave scrawled on his targets: Harcèlement Publicitaire, or Harassment by Advertising.
How did this hate for billboards come about, you ask?
Mr. Baret says the seeds for his campaign were sewn in the spring of 1997, when he was riding the Paris subway and he looked up at an ad. "I suddenly thought: 'I am in a prison,' " he says. "I saw the slogan, the lies, and it disgusted me."
The average guy on the Paris subway is a critical theorist! Awesome!
Just imagine how Clear Channel would respond to this...they'd probably release the hounds! And what is the French industry's response? Well, it's French!
The industry is remaining stoic. "There is no point rolling around on the floor crying," says Stephané Dottelonde, president of the French Union for Outdoor Advertising. "You have to respect that these groups exist."
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c'est vraiment fantastique!
I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree.
Perhaps, unless the billboards fall,
I'll never see a tree at all.
~Ogden Nash, "Song of the Open Road," 1933
Do not idealize the french. The average guy is *not* a critical theorist. As soon as he becomes a critical theorist, he stops being an average guy! There is indeed a small anti-ad movement : they tag and deface billboards, when they are accessible, and they consider this as a big action against capitalism.
The response of the industry is just sensible : the more they react, the more publicity they give to this small movement, so they bite the stick.
There is a significant extreme left in France, communists, trotskists, antiglobalization or environmentalists. They may represent as much as 10% of the voters.
If you consider this anti-ad campaign as being progressive and nice, think twice. The left in France is globally (1) divided (2) quite silly. The left is mainly represented by the socialist party. This party has presently great difficulty finding a leader, developing a coherent program and... being heard. It still lives on the old precept "no enemy on the left". Hence, it is not able to reject extremist behavior, and lacks credibility. This is a sure receipt for staying out of power for many more years.
Beyond this, the left has a pretty bad record on the repression of antisemitic acts, and inclusion of descendants of african immigrant into society.
I like this blog when it is rationalist and well informed. I'd advise Chris to visit France - my country - and get balanced information about it.