A BARRIER-BREAKING AD IN FEBRUARY 2026
"Too serious people are tedious. Except for your insurer."
At the Place d'Italie bus stop in the 13th
"C'est pénible les gens trop sérieux. Sauf quand c'est votre assureur."
You have noticed the models of color in ads. Here is how they emerged in Paris.
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Before February 2020, they were almost absent. Then suddenly, this image not only included a Black but had him dominate a group of whites:
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Métro Arts et Métiers |
A timid series of images followed.* These ads come from the métro or the lower-middle-class 13th, so address a mass public (the last photos excepted).
*The blogger Monique Wells noticed the change: For her presentation of metro posters in February 2020, please click.
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In March and April 2020 models were almost entirely Black or
North African but...
- Most were single figures, which skipped rapport with whites:
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Rue Nationale |
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| Boulevard Vincent Auriol |
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| Corner rues de Tolbiac / Albert Moureu |
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| Place d'Italie |
- For mixed couples, the white dominated:
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| Rue du Château des Rentiers |
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| Corner rues Jeanne d'Arc / Clisson |
Then came a pause: In April most ads were zooms on products, with an occasional white model.
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In September models of color returned and included Asians.
- The first image was of a baby...
- He became part of a wider picture, where races and genders were mixed but the white boy commanded:
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| Pharmacie au carrefour rue de Tolbiac / avenue de Choisy |
- Then whites dominated more subtly, by being in the foreground or advancing a knee:
M° Nation
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Avenue des Gobelins |
The Italie Deux mall
- When the figures were equal...
- The Black was reassuring: pale, his coiffure dated and his outfit classic...
M° Châtelet
- Unless the image targeted a progressive clientele:
Naturalia, avenue de Choisy
"Bio:" organic
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The year's end brought a multitude of Blacks. Their subordination was subtle:
- The Scandinavian sweater contradicts the butler image, camouflaging the figure's subordination:
Naturalia, rue de Tolbiac
- And reversing the usual heights of the man and woman attenuates the white's domination, who also advances her foot:
Bus stop, rue de Tolbiac
- Showing equality began through children...
The cash register at the Franprix behind rue de Tolbiac
- ...by emphasizing conventional gender roles:
Rue de Tolbiac
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One image broke the rules:
- The Black's careless pose, sullen expression and coiffure evoked the street. But since he wore a tux and his companion an evening gown, he was on the level of the clients...
- Most ads last a week. This one hovered over the center of the city in fall 2020, then moved to the Tuileries gardens next to the Louvre in December. At the start of 2021, it occupied the full last page of the influential daily Le Monde.
It told the sponsor's wealthy clients that they could relate to what ordinary people couldn't.
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In 2024 and 2025, Blacks could project strength...
