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France Mandates Influencers To Label Filtered Photos, Bans Promotion Of Plastic Surgery On Social Media As Paid Partnerships

Posted on by Phil Lam X

Influencers in France could soon be banned from promoting cosmetic surgery on social media, with the government set to make it mandatory for them to label filtered images.

Under the potential new law, a photo or video that’s filtered or retouched must be declared so, while “all promotion for cosmetic surgery … as part of a paid partnership will be prohibited” (gambling or cryptocurrency paid partnerships will also be banned).

The government is seeking to “limit the destructive psychological effects” the practices have on social media users.

Breaches of the strict regulations, proposed by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, could result in up to two years of jail and $32,515 (€30,000) in fines. Even worse (for them), offending influencers who are found guilty will not be allowed to use social media or continue their careers on the platforms.

Mr. Le Maire said there would be a “zero-tolerance approach” to anyone who does not respect the rules, which will be debated by France’s National Assembly from today.

In a press release, he said the country is the first European nation to create a comprehensive framework for regulating the influencer sector – with the law holding to account all French influencers, as well as those who live abroad but earn money from sponsoring products sold in France.

Mr. Le Maire on Monday told Franceinfo that the regulations were not a “fight” against influencers or a way to stigmatize them, but were a system to protect both them and consumers.

“Influencers must be subject to the same rules as those that apply to traditional media,” he said, saying the internet “is not the Wild West”.

It’s not the first time France has sought to increase transparency regarding the circulation of manipulated images. The nation passed a law in 2017 requiring any commercial photos that had been retouched to make a model’s body appear thinner or thicker to be labeled “photographie retouchée” (retouched photograph).

The idea came courtesy of France’s former health minister Marisol Touraine, who said at the time it was important to avoid the promotion of “inaccessible beauty ideals and to prevent anorexia among young people”.

“Drawing attention to digitally altered images may not, as one might expect and hope, reduce the aspiration to attain contemporary beauty ideals,” the paper stated.

“Beauty ideals cannot be easily challenged by such interventions. Beauty ideals are culturally constructed and are carriers of meaning and value.”

Source: New York Post

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Heinz Debuts Spoon Made Of Fries To Catch The Ideal Amount Of Ketchup

Posted on by Phil Lam X

For years, fast-food enthusiasts have had a chip off their shoulders. Sometimes there’s too much ketchup on their French fry, rendering it a flabby mess. At other times, it’s barely there. And don’t get them started on the concept of double-dipping.

Heinz UK claims to have the perfect solution to end this fries-stration for good: ‘Spoon Friez’. As their name suggests, they’re fries in the shape of spoons.

According to the condiment maker, the mouths of spoons are just the right size to carry the perfect amount of ketchup for the ultimate eating experience. “Carbs in the shape of a spoon? Fry-nally,” the brand tweets.

LADBible reports that the company began dipping into (or scooped into?) the idea of making edible cutlery after a self-conducted survey that revealed 95% of consumers would rather not eat their fries if there was no sauce. The research also found that 84% were annoyed at how they couldn’t nail the perfect potato-to-ketchup ratio.

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to find Spoon Friez at your favorite fast-food joint. Heinz only gave them away as part of a sweepstakes for National Fries Day, which falls on July 13 each year. The fact that that’s a Wednesday this year, and not a Friday (Fry-day, get it?), is kind of infuriating.

Source: DesignTAXI

Wendy’s Rips Into McDonald’s French Fries In Savage New Billboard

Posted on by Phil Lam X

Fast-food rivalries have been longstanding, and perhaps no rivalry has been more fun to watch over social media than that between Wendy’s and McDonald’s.

From Wendy’s savagely slamming the Golden Arches on Twitter over the seemingly forever broken ice cream machines to the former calling its new hot honey chicken sandwich “anything but McBland,” it’s safe to say that the two know how to riff each other when it comes to who reigns supreme.

Wendy’s latest not-so-subtle campaign is taking it one step further, and it looks like social media has caught on rather quickly.

Over the past few months, Wendy’s has put billboards up around Chicago advertising its famous French fries after the recipe was reformulated in August 2021 to maintain a fresher and crispier consistency upon delivery.

“What we’ve done is balance the cut of the fry and kept a little bit of the skin of the potato on the fry to be able to drive flavor,” Wendy’s President Kurt Kane said at the time. “We used a batter system that allows us to be able to maintain crispiness, both when they’re fresh and hot out of the fryer as well as several minutes later.”

The billboards read “hot and crispy fries don’t arch, just sayin’” alongside a photo of a folded fry that has an uncanny resemblance to half of the “M” in the famous McDonald’s Golden Arches symbol.

Naturally, Twitter took note and had a field day with it.

“I have tears in my eyes from laughing so much,” one user commented below one of the billboard photos. “I love how savage @Wendys is.”

“Twitter’s not enough..so we’re taking it to the streets now, huh, Wendy’s,” another joked alongside a crying laughing emoji.

Wendy’s even tweeted back a sly face emoji at one of the original posters, playing along with the social media fodder.

The fast-food chain still maintains that their fries are preferred 2:1 to McDonald’s.

Your move, Mickey D’s.

Wendy’s was up 12.59% year over year as of Friday afternoon.

Source: Entrepreneur

France Secretly Changed Its Flag’s Blue A Year Ago And Practically No One Noticed

Posted on by Phil Lam X

It’s literally been waving at people but they didn’t pay heed. The blue in the French flag is now navy, reverting to the shade used before 1976 to remember the Revolution.

The exterior of the Elysée Palace, along with other presidential buildings, has been sporting the look for a year unannounced. The refresh was only made public with the publication of the book Elysée Confidentiel by journalists Eliot Blondet and Paul Larrouturou in mid-September, which recounts how the color had been so abruptly swapped, euronews reports.

Arnaud Jolens, the Elysée’s director of operations, had walked into President Emmanuel Macron’s office on the eve of the country’s National Day in 2020 bringing two variations of the flag—the post-1976 version and this one—and then declared: “By the way, I’m changing the flags on all the buildings of the presidency tomorrow.” Macron smiled.

Navy blue honors “the imagination of the Volunteers of Year II, the Poilus of 1914 and the Compagnons de la Libération of Free France,” the French Presidency details. The Volunteers of Year II were France’s first citizen army who, in 1791, volunteered to protect French territory from a threatened Prussian/Austrian invasion post-Revolution (hence the term “Year II.”)

This was the shade of the tri-colored flag up to 45 years before, and the same one flown under the Arc de Triomphe every year on Armistice Day on November 11.

The blue was later brightened to match the one in the European Union flag, a decision made by former president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.

Decades after, the French presidency has readopted the classic navy. The switch of flags across presidential landmarks cost €5,000.

Macron was evidently pleased by the decision. “The flag that all the presidents have been dragging around since [1976] was not the real French flag,” the book explains, describing the details of the conversation between Macron and Jolens.

Source: DesignTAXI

‘Wuhan Girls, Wahoo!’ French DJ Michel Gaubert And Crew Party With Slant-Eyed Masks In Paris

Posted on by Phil Lam X

French DJ Michel Gaubert has apologized for showcasing racist slanty-eye paper masks on social media.

The longtime music collaborator for Chanel, Fendi and Raf Simons first posted a video on Instagram of a private dinner on Thursday night. In the clip, eight dinner guests can be seen holding the masks while yelling “Wuhan girls, wahoo.”

This post soon received backlash from industry influencers including Susanna Lau, Bryan Grey Yambao, Tina Craig, Diet Prada and model Chu Wong.

“Where to begin with this.…The patently racist paper maskers with the slanted eyes cut out, which are basically an Asian version of blackface,” Lau said in a series of Instagram Stories. “The dumb reference to Wuhan girls obviously tickling Marie Beltrami and Michel Gaubert to no end as their LOL around with their f–king horrible masks whilst Asians are getting beaten up because of people conflating the origins of a virus with people’s ethnicity.”

Lau later added that she is “genuinely upset,” because “these are people I mix with (well pre-COVID-19). What lies beneath the smiles and niceties…I don’t know anymore. Are we just all the same? A slant-eyed white-masked non entity with no voice, no significance, no agency…”

Yambao said he was surprised that “no one at that dinner thought that it was NOT nice to do this and it was NOT wise to post it on social media.”

Source: WWD

PepsiCo Rebrands Aunt Jemima As Pearl Milling Company, Retires Character Based On Racial Stereotype

Posted on by Phil Lam X

Aunt Jemima syrups and pancake mixes will be rebranded as Pearl Milling Company, PepsiCo said on Tuesday. 

“Though new to store shelves, Pearl Milling Company was founded in 1888 in St. Joseph, Missouri, and was the originator of the iconic self-rising pancake mix that would later become known as Aunt Jemima,” the company said in a press release.

PepsiCo, which owns Quaker Oats, said in June 2020 it would change the brand name on its Aunt Jemima products, which had long been criticized for their roots in racial stereotypes.

Launched about 130 years ago, the Aunt Jemima brand was in part based on racist stereotyping and imagery, like those seen in minstrel show performances. 

“While work has been done over the years to evolve our brand in a manner intended to be appropriate and respectful, we realize that those changes are not enough,” the company said on its updated website on Tuesday.

Aunt Jemima was one of several brands on grocery store shelves that came under scrutiny last year, as the US erupted with protests following the killing of George Floyd. The Uncle Ben’s brand, owned by Mars, in September became Ben’s Original. That brand also dropped its character image. 

The newly rebranded Pearl Milling products will begin hitting shelves in June, PepsiCo said. The company’s products will continue to be Aunt Jemima until then, though they’ll no longer use the character images. 

The company on Tuesday released pictures of its newly rebranded products, which have the familiar red-white-and-yellow coloring. They’ve been updated with the new brand name, along with smaller tags that say: “New name, same great taste, Aunt Jemima.” 

Along with the rebranding, PepsiCo said Pearl Milling Company planned to announce a $1 million grant program committed to empowering black girls and women. PepsiCo previously announced an about $400 million investment in black businesses and communities, the company said. 

Source: Business Insider

McDonald’s Launches Outdoor Campaign Using Reflections On Streets At Night To Bring Menu Items To Life – Reminding Consumers They Are Open Late

Posted on by Phil Lam X

McDonald’s New Zealand has unveiled a new outdoor campaign that uses lights reflecting on streets at night to bring its menu items to life.

Created together with DDB Aotearoa, the Reflections campaign aims to point late-night foodies in the direction of what they need, reminding them that McDonald’s is open late for supper cravings.

The campaign features fuzzy-looking McDonald’s menu items, such as the Big Mac, cheeseburger and fries, and coincide with the end-of-year celebration season.

Source: DesignTAXI

International Student At ESSEC Business School In Singapore Sparks Outrage With Racist Instagram Posts

Posted on by Phil Lam X

A foreign student studying abroad in Singapore faced massive backlash this past weekend after a photograph that she posted on Instagram for Chinese New Year earlier in 2020 went viral for all the wrong reasons.

The student, Louise, has since issued an apology on her now-private Instagram account, and Essec Business School, where she studies, has said that they are “looking into the situation”.

On Friday (Dec. 4), Instagram user @beforeik.o posted a screenshot of an Instagram story she had made of Louise’s post, which showed the French student pulling back her eyes with her fingers into a slit shape while wearing a cheongsam.

@beforeik.o’s Instagram post also included a screenshot of another photo posted by Louise for Chinese New Year, which included the words “ching chong” in the caption.

A person also commented, “So chong!! So coronavirus!!”

In her Instagram post, @beforeik.o also shared several screenshots of direct messages (DMs) in which Louise claimed that she was “clearly not racist” and that the photo was “just for fun”.

Louise pointed to the fact that Chinese people may get surgery on their eyes to have more “European” features, and asked whether that would be considered racism.

@beforeik.o replied that Louise should educate herself, remove the post, and apologise “before this whole thing blows up”.

Louise, however, doubled down and claimed to have a master’s degree, as well as a diploma from Harvard University about ethnicity in the workplace.

On Saturday (Dec. 5), the official Instagram page of Essec Business School commented on @beforeik.o’s Instagram post, writing that they are “looking into the situation and will take appropriate action”.

Source: Mothership