Friday, May 16, 2008

French fight beach pollution by bleeding fighting G.I. imagery.


(click ads for closer look)
The iconic Iwo Jima flag raising pic has been exploited from the halls of luxury jet companies to the shores of South Africa; in the name of global warming (see masthead), and now as part of a French beach cleanup effort called Surfrider. And! Since it's French beaches, Y&R Paris decided to also use a D-Day image. And that Photoshopped image (right, above) appears to be from the Omaha beach sector of the invasion, aka "Bloody Omaha," where over 2,000 American soldiers were killed (somewhat recreated in the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan). The third ad of the campaign plays off of a jungle photo from the Vietnam war. So, is it OK for the French to exploit dead US soldiers, even if it is to combat pollution? Well, at least they get to fight another day, I guess. related: French exploit 9/11 to battle bad water; imagery of US soldiers exploited by India to sell Kama Sutra brand condoms; Marines can't use MySpace, commands MySpace using DofD.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

All ads and public documents in France that contain English or, generally speaking, any foreign language, must, somewhere, provide a translation of the content in French.

These ads do not seem to, at least in the proof posted.

To this extent, they would not be legal to use or post in public spaces in French.

I do not know who is being them but this is either a non-French design agency or someone with little experience in ad design.

11:44 AM  
Blogger copyranter said...

These ads are most likely translated versions for international PR purposes only. Happens often.

11:47 AM  
Blogger Named after Paddy Chayefsky said...

Is it just me or is the Omaha beach shot from the wrong perspective? Shouldn't the soldiers be landing on the beach, meaning the background should the hills, other topography of etc. of a landing. They look like they're walking towards the open ocean.

Here's the picture the ad is based on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:1944_NormandyLST.jpg

6:42 PM  

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