French to boycott American products ?

[Spiffor]

I just got this in my mailbox today (homemade translation under) :

Aux USA, beaucoup de restaurants Français sont
vides, AIRBUS vois la plupart de ses contrats s'éloigner de l'autre coté de l'atlantique. Les eaux minérales française ne se vendent plus, les fromages ont quasiment disparu des rayons, bref les USA boycottent les produits français et nous que faisons-nous ?

Et bien le midi nous allons chez mac Do, nous consommons du coca sous toutes ces formes, nous allons chez ESSO remplir le carburant de notre Ford, nous allons au cinéma voir de grand film où le drapeau américain apparaît environ une dizaine de fois en à peine 60 min et où la fin est connue de tout le monde, oui oui c'est eux qui sauvent le monde...

Il serait peut être temps à nous Français et Européens de nous réveiller et de boycotter les produits américains.

C'est pourquoi à partir du samedi 1er Mars et durant une semaine complète, nous invitons tous ceux qui ont une conscience, qui ne veulent pas se faire dicter leur culture, leur mode de vie par les américains, à une semaine internationale de boycotte de produits américains.
C'est à vous de prendre vos responsabilités et de montrer au pouvoir public que le peuple sait faire autre chose que de défiler dans la rue, il sait aussi passer a l'action.

Tous ceux qui désirent soutenir cette semaine d'action sont priés de transmettre ce mail à un maximum de monde, de l'imprimer et de le faxer à tout ceux qui n'ont pas Internet. Bref faites savoir votre point de vue si vous voulez que l'on vous respectes en tant qu'humain.
Merci à tous.

"In the US, many French restaurants are empty, Airbus witnesses its contracts getting lost on the other side of the Atlantic. French mineral waters don't sell anymore, lCheeses have nearly disappeared from the stores, in short the US is boycotting French products, and what do we do ?

Well, we go to lunch at McDonald's, we drink Coca Cola in all its varieties, We go to Esso to fill our Fords, we go to theatres to see great movies where the American flag is shown approx. 10 times in 60 minutes, and in which everybody knows the end. Yes, yes they are those who save the world...

Maybe it is time for us French and European to wake up and start to be boycotting American products.

That's why from Saturnday 1st march on and during a whole week, we invite every concious people who don't want to have their culture and their way of life dictated by the americans, to an international boycott of American products.
It's up to you to take responsibility and show to the policymakers that the people knows to do something else than protesting in the streets, it also knows to take action.

All those who want to support this action are asked to forward this mail to as many people as possible, to print it and fax it to those who don't have Internet. In short, make your point of view known, if you want to be respected as a human being

Thanks you all (unsigned)"

[DanS]

French restaurants are empty?

This person has doesn't know much about the US, eh?

And we all eat Danish cheese!!!

[DuncanK]

How much food is imported to French restaurants? Maybe the cheese and wine. As far as mineral water goes, people haven't drank much of it for as long as I can remember. What do we import from the French?

[Spiffor]

I think this mail is the outcome of a frustrated activist. I didn't get it from my usual anti-war friends (who are probably unaware of this), nor from my comrades in the Communist Party.
The mail is also full of typos and syntax errors, and doesn't show any web adress, so it seems to be an extremely limited initative. Also, the many verifiable lies (like the disapperance of cheese in the supermarkets), and the general confusion between short term policy and general trends make it even less likely to be from a serious source.

However, what is more strange, is that it comes from a generally apolitical friend. This friend, like everybody else, was astonished in Junior High that I fought American imperialism with boycott, and 10 years later invites me to do so (he forwarded this mails to all his contacts, not just me)

I haven't seen this boycott thing in the media nor in other sources, and I never heard about an "international" boycott of American products. Hence, I'd classify this mail as a normal raving, like when Lancer warns me France products are boycotted.
But I think this mail shows how high antiamericanism is rising, even among the youth. I've seen some signs of Antiamericanism among my German friends too, who are traditionally rabidly pro-American.

Do you think the raise of Antiamericanism is general and will last, or do you think it is merely a short-lived fashion ?

[Ming]

Hmmm... let's see... If all Americans boycott French Products, and all the French boycott Americans Products... They French still lose

[Asher]

Oh no!
Now where will I get my French bread from.

[DuncanK]

Boycotts can be effective. I thought most people boycotted our goods anyway. I guess McDonalds wouldn't be everywhere though if they weren't making money.

[Spiffor]

Not quite, we have a commercial deficit towards the US (meaning we buy more from the US than the US buys from us), and I heard US corporations try to avoid spreading the word of boycotting French / European products, for fear of losing good clients.

I don't know how organized boycotts are on your side of the pond. But for now, a complete boycott of American products in France is completely unlikely.

[Adam Smith]

Originally posted by Spiffor
we invite every concious people who don't want to have their culture and their way of life dictated by the americans

Opponents of globalization jump on the bandwagon?

[DinoDoc]

I'm just shocked that the French don't like America! Shocked, I tell you! The hostility toward the English language alone made me think that they were all warm and cuddly toward us.

[DanS]

What do we import from the French?

Don't know, but it's not much. We spend about $30 billion a year on French useless sh!t, about $10 billion more than they spend on our useless sh!t.

By comparison, we spend $130 billion a year on Chinese useless sh!t.

meaning we buy more from the US than the US buys from us

No you don't.

[Spiffor]

Erm, nearly nobody in France is happy to see our culture being colonized by McDonald's, whatever their stance on globalization. Of course, we have our extremist liberals (European meaning : free marketers), who just don't care about anything else than the sanctity of the market.
But other political tendencies are very defensive on the culture issue, even though they can agree with globalization.

Edit : DanS, I stand corrected I didn't know we had a commercial exceed towards you.

[monkspider]

Vive La France!

[Cyclotron]

we invite every concious people who don't want to have their culture and their way of life dictated by the americans

Dictated? Oh, that's why they are drinking coke, eating at McDonalds, watching American movies, and filling up on American gas: we dictated it to them.

[Adam Smith]

Spiffor:

If nobody is happy about it, why don't they just not go to McDonalds? Having a bunch of bankrupt franchises would seem to be the clearest and cleanest solution (not to mention a free market solution at that ). BTW, McDonalds is now losing money in the US as people get tired of it and want something better to eat. This is in spite of the convenience factor and the fact that last year, for the first time, Americans spent more money eating out than eating at home. One wonders if and when these trends might extend to other countries.

When I was in France in 94 our B&B host in Normandy ran a small wheat farm which would get lost in any self-respecting wheatfield in Kansas. Our host claimed that French agricultural policy was necessary to preserve French culture. Would you agree? (I will note that the conversation took place over glasses of 30 year old calvados which made it considerably easier to tolerate.)

[Spiffor]

Adam Smith :

Actually, the French I know of are more and more conscious McDonals is pure crap. Well, I admit they are about the same age as me (early 20s) and I knew them when we were kids and overjoyed to go to MacDo, so it might be the effect of age, I don't know. I'm wondering if McDonald's selling figures are lowering in France, but I don't have the answer.

Actually, even though American culture has low consideration here, it remains pretty appealing, especially for the youth than finds (found ?) it hip, or at least convenient and entertaining.
Many friends of mine go see some Hollywood cheap entertainment in the theatres or rent some Hollywood crap on DVDs, as a reflex. Even my more antiamerican friends and myself see American pictures, even though they're not from Hollywood industry (heck I was dragged 2 times to see Bowling for Columbine, for a grand total of 3 viewings ).
Consuming American culture is just a reflex here. People don't care about it in their choice of consumption.

About agriculture subsidies (I smell a major threadjack here, but still ) : France doesn't need them to maintain its agriculture, because there are good soils, good agricultural culture, good technology, and good everything to make French agriculture one of the most competitive in the world if the market was free.
However, without the subsidies, many less than optimal areas would stop to be cultivated, because they wouldn't bring enough money to their owners. It will cause problems to the territory and to landscapes (I've read somewhere subsidised peasants were "gardeners of France")
Also, these subsidies are needed to keep an old peasant tradition alive, because their end would basically mean the end of small agricultural exploitations.

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Adam Smith
Spiffor:

If nobody is happy about it, why don't they just not go to McDonalds?

Yup, it is really that simple.

BTW, McDonalds is now losing money in the US as people get tired of it and want something better to eat.

I think Mickey D's bought stakes in Boston Market and also Denato's Pizza. Personally I think both of those are top chains.

[Sprayber]

Spiffor: Is the level of anti-americanism consistent from the urban areas to the rural or is there a significant difference. What about the age differences. Is it just the younger people or are the older people the same way.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Spiffor
Edit : DanS, I stand corrected I didn't know we had a commercial exceed towards you.

Don't feel so special. Everybody in the world does...

[DuncanK]

Kids like McDonalds. I think McDonalds becomes less popular as populations age.

[KrazyHorse]

McDonald's is sh*t. I hated it as a kid and I hate it now...

[KrazyHorse]

The worst **** they had there was that cheap-ass orange McDonalds swill-water. I ordered an "orange soda" there once, ignorantly, and they gave me that stuff instead of telling me they didn't have any orange soda. Soda is carbonated. CARBONATED!

[DuncanK]

Not even Americans like our cheap crap, but sometimes its all we can afford.

[Ted Striker]

I'd say Jack in the Box is the absolute worst, I mean not one, but TWO levels below Mickey Dees.

[Q Classic]

white castle is worse than jack in the box. and the name in-and-out burger really isn't... well... appealing.

[Spiffor]

I also hated McDonald's when I was young, because I started boycotting America by the end of elementary school Sadly, I became more lax as age went by, and I know accept to buy some American products, or to go see some American movies. Fortunately, I keep my record of not drinking coke or similar, and of not going to McDonald's or similar.

I really hate American cultural imperialism. Especially in regard of the crap that colonizes us. The Yanks aren't stupid, they keep their good stuff to themselves

[The Mad Monk]

Sometimes I just gotta go to McD's for a sack of cheeseburgers and fries. Ah, memories.

[Shi Huangdi]

Originally posted by monkspider
Vive La France!

Why are cheering on a boycott of your own country!? Do you want them to stop buying our goods to hurt our economy and potentialy cost your countrymen jobs? If you feel that strong a hate for your own country you really should leave, after all where you are you have to buy plenty of american goods and pay taxes to the US government.

[Harovan]

Hmmm, let's see. Personally, I am almost independent from products of both sides, aside from occasional visits at Mickey D's and SubStop, which I could easily cease due to sufficient available alternatives. My wife, OTOH, loves French products. She mainly drinks French mineral waters, eats French cheese, French bagels (frozen), baguettes (well, the latter are made in Germany though) etc.

Ironically, when I visited Paris for a while in the 90's, I mainly ate at McDonalds, not because it's better than French food, but because I wasn't willing to pay French astronomical prices . After I paid the equivalent of 140 DM (that was about $90 at the time) for a spartanic lunch for 3 (wife, me, 13 year old son) in something I would call a bistro rather than a restaurant, I was cured of French licensed houses.

Overall, product boycotts at consumer level are silly.

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by Spiffor
I also hated McDonald's when I was young, because I started boycotting America by the end of elementary school Sadly, I became more lax as age went by, and I know accept to buy some American products, or to go see some American movies. Fortunately, I keep my record of not drinking coke or similar, and of not going to McDonald's or similar.

I really hate American cultural imperialism. Especially in regard of the crap that colonizes us. The Yanks aren't stupid, they keep their good stuff to themselves

By the end of elementary school???

Was this limited to you, or was it common among elementary school grads? BTW, just to avoid confusion, American elementary school stops around age ten.