Liberté

n. – liberty or freedom
Egalité
n. – equality
Fraternité
n. – fraternity or botherhood
Publicité
n. – advertising
The first three words make up the motto of French ideology. Ever since storming the Bastille, the French have held the principal of freedom high on their list of fundamental rights.

This resistance to being oppressed in any way has carried over to their reluctance in embracing advertising. As someone who has spent several years working in international print advertising, I learned a great deal about the restrictions pertaining to ad placements in France. There are issues ranging from comparison advertising to claims that are unquantifiable.

Examples of the former would be an ad that states a product is better than another product, which is the basis of many campaigns in the US. Here that would be “interdit” or forbidden. An unquantifiable claim would be anything you describe as a miracle product because clearly miracles are very hard to prove.

The government has recently limited advertising on public television and rather is seeking to increase the taxes paid by the public for said programming as a way to underwrite the costs. Many people who enjoy the public programming with its rich menu of arts and culture have no problem with this. However, those who aren’t fans don’t care if there are less ads and don’t want to have to pay more money to support something they don’t watch in the first place.

Unless you have a digital system whereby you have more control over your television, less advertising can actually become a hindrance. I remember the days before DVR’s when ads would release you to use the restroom, clean the dishes, call someone quickly or do whatever it was you needed to do within the time that slight break would allow. The ads in a way were what made watching television at home less restrictive than going to the movies where you would miss something if you had to get up at any time.

Of course not watching the ads defeats the purpose just as well as not having them at all. And as advertisers have caught on to our ability to block their messages, their methods have become more and more pervasive. If you want to watch television live, the only way to avoid the commercials is the old fashioned way of leaving the room when they come on. In movie theaters, the only solution is to wait until the last minute before the previews starts at which point all the good seats have been taken. In print, they are interspersed between the pages of the articles you read. Online, they’re constantly popping up as you surf the web or try to watch videos. And outdoor, they can be as tall as skyscrapers making them impossible to ignore.

This last form of advertising has come under attack here recently by groups of people whose goal is not only to destroy the ads, but to get arrested while doing it. I’ve seen them in the metro stations ripping the ads from the walls and I’ve also seen the graffiti left behind as they make their point against whatever message the advertiser is trying to make. It’s not so much against the specific product itself as it is against the fact that the message is so blatant and hard to avoid. In other words, advertising infringes upon personal freedom.

It’s an interesting argument because one could counter that the exposure to so many products can in fact help people to freely choose the one that’s right for them. Sounds good in theory, but it’s actually that very plethora of products on the market that is what’s overwhelming.

So maybe it’s not so bad after all if you can accept when someone tells you their product is better than the rest since it’s a miracle – because if you can believe in miracles, you’re already much better off.