Advertising, Paris-style

French advertising is an art form in itself. The Metro is filled with ads, big ads framed in gilded gold in each of the stations and smaller posters plastered along the walls in the underground labyrinth that connects one station to another. There's a haunting ad sponsored by the Bridgette Bardot Foundation, showing a golden retreiver, healthy and surrounded by two laughing children on one side of the ad while the other side shows a gaunt, starving dog lying listlessly on a vet's table. "Pour lui, l'amor... pour moi, la mort," it says--"For him, love... for me, death," and there's a website address for donations to the Foundation.

And there are, of course, the familiar icons of advertising known around the world. Coca-Cola is everywhere. So is McDonald's--there's one right down the street. I took this photo of the McDonald's on the Champs-Elysses where the golden arch was a curious echo of the larger Arc de Triomphe in the background. You'll see a Starbuck's now and then but they are not nearly as common as they are in the States. And not nearly as crowded.

One of my favorite ads was one I saw in Montmartre when we were tramping up and down the cobblestone streets looking for an art supply store for my husband. This ad was on the outside wall of a pharmacy and it was for a hand sanitizer. You can see by the photo it shows a lovely blonde girl looking askance at the hairy hands of what appears to be a wolfman and the bony hands of a mummy, clinging to the same pole in the car of the Metro. [I'm no germaphobe but I know just how she feels and whenever I get home from riding le Metro, the first thing I do is wash my hands, even if there haven't been any wolfmen on my line.] I laughed out loud and snapped a shot of the ad.

I was thrilled to see an ad for Kenya down in the Metro station, having so recently worked on a project with Heartland International and a group of Kenyan entrepreneurs. I had no idea that Kenya was a destination for French tourists, yet there it is--"Jambo!" it says, with the colorful dress and happy faces of the Maasai people. Then there's the TV ad I heard for Marakech in Morocco as a vacation spot. I immediately started humming the old song from the '60s (or was it the 70s?) "Marakech Express."

Maybe it's because of my years spent in marketing, but I find the advertising both jolting and refreshing. Sounds like an ad.