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LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

When ‘franglais’ in French adverts goes horribly wrong

Advertisers seem to find it irresistible to drop English words into French adverts - and vice versa - but this can lead to some very awkward translation fails. Here are some of the funniest (and NSFW) examples of 'franglais' going wrong.

Published: 24 November 2021 16:21 CET
When 'franglais' in French adverts goes horribly wrong
English phrases are common in French advertising. Photo: Thomas Coex/AFP

In France Burger King’s new advert for its bacon burger has been raising eyebrows – and fits of giggles – among English-speakers thanks to its unfortunate use of English.

The advert is announcing the return of the Bacon Lover burger and attempts a pun on the popular phrase ‘faire son come-back‘ – although come-back is an anglicism, the phrase faire le come-back is widely used in France, especially among younger people.

The advert’s copywriters then attempted to add in a bacon pun and ended up with the strapline Il fait son come-bacon (it’s made its come-back).

Unfortunately, ‘come’ in English is also widely used as a slang term for both orgasm and semen, so for native speakers of English, the advert appeared to be for a ‘semen bacon burger’ – leading to it being widely shared and mocked on social media.

And it’s not the only example of the addition of English words that make French marketing slightly surprising. 

Likewise this French bookstore’s attempt to pun on the English word ‘book’ leads to a rather aggressive ambience.

But it’s not just French copywriters who are prone to this, English-language adverts often contain a sprinkling of French words in order to give a more ‘sophisticated’ image.

This can backfire, however, as in the below advert for a range of frozen canapés.

The original strap-line ‘little bites, big compliments’ makes perfect sense in English, along with a trio of people apparently enjoying a laugh and a bite-sized morsel.

However, the copywriters then attempt to give it a French flavour by substituting petite for ‘little’ – unfortunately une bite in French (pronounced beet) is a slang term for penis, so now the line reads ‘little pricks, big compliments’ and the laughter of the women in the picture takes on a slightly different tone.

The word bite is a frequent offender here, with Marks & Spencer’s range of ‘mini bites’ provoking giggles among shoppers in Paris, where the British products are sold without being translated into French.

Likewise the below Kit-Kat chocolate snacks on sale in Montreal include both the English and the French for the word ‘bites’, but to French-speakers look like they’re called ‘bite-sized cocks’.

Also into the Franglais hall of fame goes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who attempted to diffuse a cross-Channel row about defence contracts by telling the French to ‘Donnez-moi un break‘ (give me a break).

The phrase from the (fluent French-speaking) British PM, caused some confusion since un break is frequently used in France to mean a family car or station wagon.

So Johnson appeared to be saying ‘Give me a family vehicle’ – which might at least come in handy to transport his unspecified number of children. 

And it’s not just Franglais that runs the risk of this type of translation failing.

The below Swedish advert attempted to make a pun on ‘tea’ and ‘therapist’ and ended up appearing to warn shoppers about the tea-rapist.

Member comments

  1. There’s a Thai restaurant on the edge of La Défense that’s called “Thaïoria”, which may work in French, but the second you say it in English…

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TODAY IN FRANCE

France to compensate relatives of Algerian Harki fighters

France has paved the way towards paying reparations to more relatives of Algerians who sided with France in their country's independence war but were then interned in French camps.

Published: 16 May 2023 08:29 CEST
France to compensate relatives of Algerian Harki fighters

More than 200,000 Algerians fought with the French army in the war that pitted Algerian independence fighters against their French colonial masters from 1954 to 1962.

At the end of the war, the French government left the loyalist fighters known as Harkis to fend for themselves, despite earlier promises it would look after them.

Trapped in Algeria, many were massacred as the new authorities took revenge.

Thousands of others who fled to France were held in camps, often with their families, in deplorable conditions that an AFP investigation recently found led to the deaths of dozens of children, most of them babies.

READ ALSO Who are the Harkis and why are they still a sore subject in France?

French President Emmanuel Macron in 2021 asked for “forgiveness” on behalf of his country for abandoning the Harkis and their families after independence.

The following year, a law was passed to recognise the state’s responsibility for the “indignity of the hosting and living conditions on its territory”, which caused “exclusion, suffering and lasting trauma”, and recognised the right to reparations for those who had lived in 89 of the internment camps.

But following a new report, 45 new sites – including military camps, slums and shacks – were added on Monday to that list of places the Harkis and their relatives were forced to live, the government said.

Now “up to 14,000 (more) people could receive compensation after transiting through one of these structures,” it said, signalling possible reparations for both the Harkis and their descendants.

Secretary of state Patricia Miralles said the decision hoped to “make amends for a new injustice, including in regions where until now the prejudices suffered by the Harkis living there were not recognised”.

Macron has spoken out on a number of France’s unresolved colonial legacies, including nuclear testing in Polynesia, its role in the Rwandan genocide and war crimes in Algeria.

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