Atout France is a government organization that is responsible for promoting various French tourist destinations. Recently, it launched an ad campaign aimed at French tourists. The slogan for the campaign is “France, tout un monde à explorer – Devenez Françonaute” (France, a whole world to discover – be a Franconaute).
The campaign images show an astronaut visiting various French tourist destinations. The astronaut is seen in front of the cliffs of Fécamp, in front of Chateau of Chambord in the Loire, on the sand dunes of Pyla, in front of the Hôtel Dieu in Beaune, etc. And he stands in the middle of the vineyards in Côte des Bar in southern Champagne. Or rather, he was.
The Champagne producers reacted strongly when they saw this astronaut in the middle of the vines and called for his immediate removal. Why? Well, an astronaut costume resembles too much the protective equipment that winegrowers must wear when spraying with pesticides. Obviously, no one wants to remind people that pesticides are used in the vineyard.
On françonautes: france.fr/fr/franconautes. Read more vitisphere.com.
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