French Resistance to English

Abstract

This chapter will highlight various efforts on the part of the French government to limit the public’s exposure to English in the media and will examine the advertising industry’s reactions to such intervention. This discussion will include a brief historical overview of language planning in France, noting, for example, the establishment of various official organizations mandated to ‘protect the French language’ as well as government-appointed terminology commissions responsible for coining new ‘recommended’ French equivalents for Anglicisms frequently used in the media and advertising industries, as well as other professional domains. Following this discussion will be a description of the 1994 Toubon Law, the most comprehensive legislation to date in France designed to curb the use of English in the media. Specific areas of the legislation that pertain to advertising will be discussed in detail (such as the required equally ‘legible, audible and intelligible’ French translations for foreign languages used in slogans and dialogue), along with the general public’s attitudes towards English. Reactions from members of the French advertising industry to this legislation as reported during ad agency interviews in Paris, the role that English plays in their inter- (and intra-) agency communication, and the mission of several organizations regulating the advertising industry will then be addressed.