France puts foot down on racy ads for movie
WHAT does it take to shock in the land of the Gallic shrug? Ads that suggest adulterous oral sex, according to complaints about new movie 'Les Infideles'.
Posters for the film -- which show the contented male stars with faceless women in submissive positions -- went up on Tuesday but were being taken down yesterday following a request from France's self-regulating advertising body.
"We could see that this campaign didn't respect (the rules) with the sexually explicit positions, the play on words. . . the boundaries were crossed," said Stephane Martin, the head of the Authority of Professional Regulation of Advertising.
Some French newspapers suggested the ads could potentially cost French actor and comedian Jean Dujardin -- nominated for an Academy Award for his role in the silent, hit film 'The Artist' -- an Oscar.
Scandal
They appear to have hit a raw nerve in a land with fresh memories of the scandal of last year's arrest of potential presidential contender Dominique Strauss-Kahn on charges of attempted rape.
In one poster, Mr Dujardin stands between a pair of upside-down, bare, female legs, clutching them and gazing at one suggestively. In another, the back of a woman's head is waist-high to actor Gilles Lellouche, who is talking on a cell phone. A quotation over his head reads: "It's going to cut off. I'm going into a tunnel."
JC Decaux, the advertising company that hung the posters, conceded they weren't in "good taste".
They have been replaced by a poster where the male leads stare at two clothed women who walk away.
- SARAH Di LORENZO
Irish Independent
