MARKETING EXPERTS GO STEP BY STEP

THEY EXPERIMENT, RETREAT AND TRY AGAIN  

(In 2023 and 2024)

In 2023...

• In March, one side of a poster challenges, the other reassures:  

Pharmacy window at corner rues de Tolbiac / Château des Rentiers, 13th

• In May, this image links Blacks with the French Revolution:

 Bastille métro

The colors are those of the French flag, red branches evoke flames and the street lamp recalls a song about hanging nobles from a lamp post ("Ça ira, ça ira, ça ira, les aristocrates à lanterne... les aristocrates on les pendra").

• In June, the Black is almost a sun-tanned white, yellow replaces red and details vanish: 

   Bus stop, rue Jeanne d'Arc, 13th

The ad reappeared a year later.

# # #

In spring 2024, Blacks might (gently) dominate:

Rue Patay, 13th

Optician's shop (the meaning of the flying objects?)

Rue du Château des Rentiers, 13th

Announcement of a school organization

Métro Nationale, 13th

 Ad for a television series.

 

# # #

 Models are young, pleasant-looking, happy — 

  Châtelet métro, June

Pharmacy window, rue Jeanne d'Arc, 13th, July

 

     Shopping center, 13th, November

Their origin does not matter. 

# # #

    And suddenly, it does —

this ad next to the Barbès métro opens new ground...

(In June 2024, at the Barbès métro)

A few months later a marketer

has a Black model dye her hair

to imply renewal of a brand

 associated with white blond goddesses :

Panel seen throughout town: Left, the petty-bougeois 13th (crossroad avenue de Choisy/rue Tolbiac, Septembre 2024) ; Right, upscale Saint-Germain (rue de Sèvres in January 2025).

*    *    *

Next,

Publicists' ploys and a downside to ads' racial mix