France Rebrands Itself to Boost Tourism
Comment dit-on “national rebranding”? The country of France has made a new year’s resolution, and not just to cut back on late night pain au chocolat binges. Maison de la France, the French Government Tourist Office, is seeking to boost tourism revenue (France is already the world’s top travel destination, with an estimated 83 million visitors in 2007) by tweaking its branding. Enter this new logo, proving just how hard it is to capture je ne sais quoi in graphic form, and a retooled tourism campaign. Associated Press writer Dheepthi Namasivayam breaks it down:
The logo features a young woman symbolizing Marianne, an allegorical figure and national symbol since the French Revolution, as she looks toward the future. The dreamy tagline, “Rendez-vous en France,” is designed to seduce visitors to the land of fashion, food, and fine wine.
The earlier version was a bit racier. “It featured Marianne’s naked breasts, joined by the ‘R’ and ‘A,'” but was vetoed in June, “apparently deemed a bit too seductive for the foreign tourist market.” In other news, be sure to check out the French tourism office’s video blog, in which a chipper, English-speaking host sets out to answer such questions as “What makes Champagne the very special, and very chic beverage it has become?” and “What makes Montpellier tick?” (we were expected something to do with clocks, but it’s the usual idyllic street cafes and petanque). And something tells us that they tapped Jerry Lewis to come up with the name of the “vlog”: Lost in Francelation.
