Organic advertising: couscous replaced by cassoulet at the request of the Ministry of Agriculture

It is an ad that was simply to promote French organic products. But barely revealed, she is already making a big splash. In question: choices imposed by the office of the Minister of Agriculture, Annie Genevard, who raise uneasiness on cultural representation in public space. According to Releasethe ministry asked to modify several elements of the advertising spot of the organic agency. First, replace an emblematic and popular couscous – with a duck cassoulet, deemed more “local”. Then, for another scene, favor a “Caucasian cast” to embody a teenager preparing mayonnaise. Yes, you read that right.

The ministry is not denied. Worse: he assumes. “The objective is to speak to all French people,” it is justified. But this defense struggles to convince. Should we really erase certain cultures to claim universality? Many see it as a clumsy – even political – attempt to refocus communication on a certain idea of ​​”traditional France”.

Production ensures that only the dishes have been changed, not the casting. Too late. Evil is done. On social networks, the case shocks, divides, questions. Elected officials are indignant, citizens strangle: why erase couscous, one of the favorite dishes of the French? Why assign a “Caucasian” face to a scene of daily life? Behind this advertisement, it is a whole debate on diversity, and the gaze that the state has on the society that reappears. And at a time when organic farming is struggling to get up from the crisis, this controversy was the last thing it needed.