Advertisement

'Anti-French' Cadillac ad sparks anger in France

Ben McPartland
Ben McPartland - [email protected]
'Anti-French' Cadillac ad sparks anger in France
The new 'anti-French' Cadillac ad has not gone down well in France, believe it or not. Photo: Screengrab YouTube

VIDEO: US luxury brand Cadillac should not count on its new electric car selling well in France after its latest advert for the vehicle was blasted as “anti-French” and “lamentable”. See for yourself why and check out the response ad from Ford.

Advertisement

It’s fair to say the latest advert for the luxury classic American Cadillac car has not gone down well in France.

The ad, features US actor Neil McDonough, of Desperate Housewives fame, playing the role of a successful American self-made man, boasting about what hard-work and ambition has brought to his country, when compared to “other countries” where workers take “the whole of August off”.

In America “we are crazy driven hard-working believers”, McDonough says, as he dons his pristine suit ready for a day’s hard work, where as in other countries, “they stroll home and stop by the café”.

As McDonough gets into his Cadillac to drive off to work he pays homage to materialism while having a barely disguised dig at the French.

“As for the stuff, that's the upside of taking just two weeks off in August. N'est-ce pas? ” he says.

Needless to say the French media, always sensitive to any form of French bashing, especially when it comes from the other side of the Atlantic, took issue with the ad.

“The lamentable anti-French advert by Cadillac,” was how the website Slate.fr headlined their article.

Writer Marc Naimark wrote, with obvious sarcasm: “Ah yes, these frogs, these cheese-eating surrender monkeys, known for their laziness, the 35-hours a week, the ban on work emails after 6pm, the four weeks spent sunbathing among the shellfish in August. What a difference to the Yankee workers, who relish spending their time doing everything, except nothing.”

The Nouvel Obs magazine wrote: “The latest advert for the luxury brand leads us to believe the French are lazy, spending their time relishing their paid holidays. Charming.”

Neither did the video go down well among The Local's readers.

Although some suggested that the French media's reaction to the ad was more a case off the truth hurts.

Opinions were divided among those commenting on Facebook.

Here’s the ad. Judge it for yourself. And since the ad came out US car giant Ford, a rival to General Motors which owns Cadillac, decided to hit back with their own advert. It's certainly worth watching too. See below. 

And now for the Ford version:

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also