Although designed to mitigate the normalising role that advertising can have on alcohol consumption, France’s Loi Évin (1991) has unwittingly channelled advertisers into reinforcing the link between their products and escapist pursuits. Where contemporary concerns about alcohol consumption in France have themselves been influenced by global trends in public health and alcohol studies, they revolve around the adoption of perceived ‘foreign’ drinking cultures, notably an embrace of drinking as a marker of leisure time and binge-drinking. Advertising strategies have accordingly countered by accentuating both leisure, in the form of travel, and intoxication. A visual semiotic analysis of recent French advertising campaigns for spirits and beer reveals layered signification of escapist themes, all in defiance of the spirit but not the letter of the Loi Évin.
AgostinelliGGrubeJ (2002) Alcohol counter-advertising and the media: a review of recent research. Alcohol Research & Health26(1): 15–21.
2.
AndersonPDe BruijnAAngusK. (2009) Impact of alcohol advertising and media exposure on adolescent alcohol use: a systematic review of longitudinal studies. Alcohol and Alcoholism44(3): 229–43.
3.
ANPAA (2003) L’Abus de publicité, dangereux pour la santé?Addictions3: 10–14.
4.
BassetBRigaudA (2015) Alcool et santé. Special issue of Actualité et dossier en santé publique90.
5.
BaverSLLynchBD (2006) Beyond Sun and Sand: Caribbean Environmentalisms. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
6.
BeccariaFGuidoniOV (2002) Young people in a wet culture: functions and patterns of drinking. Contemporary Drug Problems29(2): 305–34.
7.
BeccariaFRolandoS (2016) The more you know, the better you drink: the new drinking culture in Italian wine production areas. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy23(4): 293–301.
8.
BerlivetL (2013) Cinq sages et un ministre … généalogie de la Loi Évin. Les Tribunes de la santé39: 69–74.
9.
BeuclerPFavreauF (2003) La Loi Évin dix ans après ou le paradoxe de la contrainte féconde. Communication et langages136(1): 31–42.
BordoS (2004) Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. Berkeley: University of California Press.
12.
BuracM (2006) The struggle for sustainable tourism in Martinique. In: BaverSLLynchBD (eds) Beyond Sun and Sand: Caribbean Environmentalisms. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, pp. 65–74.
13.
BurkiT (2010) Changing drinking patterns: a sobering thought. The Lancet376: 153–4.
CroninAM (2004) Advertising Myths: The Strange Half-Lives of Images and Commodities. London: Routledge.
16.
DemossierM (2010) Wine Drinking Culture in France: A National Myth or a Modern Passion?Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
17.
DíazML (2011) Images identitaires et rhétorique: la première de couverture des guides touristiques. Protée39(2): 113–22.
18.
DomzalTJKernanJB (1992) Reading advertising: the what and how of product meaning. Journal of Consumer Marketing9(3): 48–64.
19.
DuboisGGotCGremyF. (1992) L’Action politique dans le domaine de la santé publique et de la prévention. Santé Publique4: 3–30.
20.
EvansA (2003) This Virtual Life: Escapism and Simulations in our Media World. London: Fusion Press.
21.
Ferry-MaccarioN (2008) Droit du marketing: Déjouer les pièges juridiques de la publicité et des actions commerciales. Paris: Pearson Education France.
22.
GermanazCSicreM (2012) Du bleu au vert, quand l’île tente de tourner le dos à la mer: l’introduction du paysage végétal dans les images de destination. VertigO: la revue électronique en sciences de l’environnement. Hors-série 14. Available at: https://vertigo.revues.org/12435.
23.
GirouxHA (1993) Consuming social change: The ‘United Colors of Benetton’. Cultural Critique (26): 5–32.
24.
GordonRMacKintoshAMMoodieC (2010) The impact of alcohol marketing on youth drinking behaviour: a two-stage cohort study. Alcohol and Alcoholism45(5): 470–80.
25.
Gordon’s Gin (2002) Le Gin qui fait voir un sanglier. Paris: Leo Burnett France.
26.
Gordon’s Gin (2014) Gordon the Boar. London: BBH.
27.
de FranceGouvernement (1991) Loi no 91-32 du 10 janvier 1991 relative à la lutte contre le tabagisme et l’alcoolisme. Paris: Legifrance.
28.
Heineken (2008) For a Fresher World – Rio de Janeiro. Publicis Conseil. Print advertisement.
29.
Heineken (2013) Sushi – Open your World. Publicis Conseil. Print advertisement.
30.
HillLCasswellS (2004) Alcohol advertising and sponsorship: commercial freedom or control in the public interest? In: HeatherNStockwellT (eds) The Essential Handbook of Treatment and Prevention of Alcohol Problems. Chichester: Wiley, pp. 339–62.
31.
KilbourneJ (1999) Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel. New York: Simon & Schuster.
32.
Kronenbourg 1664 (2010a) Le Goût à la française. Communiqué de presse, Paris.
33.
Kronenbourg 1664 (2010b) Le Goût à la française – Tour Eiffel. Fred & Farid. Print advertisement.
34.
Kronenbourg 1664 (2013) Le Goût à la française – Marseilles. Fred & Farid. Print advertisement.
35.
LadnerH (2014) Party down: drinking culture and TV advertising. In: CoombsDSBatchelorB (eds) We Are What We Sell: How Advertising Shapes American Life … And Always Has. Santa Barbara: Praeger, pp. 147–57.
36.
LeissW (1983) The icons of the marketplace. Theory, Culture & Society1(3): 10–21.
37.
LeissWKlineSShallyS, et al. (2005) Social Communication in Advertising: Consumption in the Mediated Marketplace. New York: Routledge.
38.
McCrackenGDPollayRW (1981) Anthropology and the Study of Advertising: History of Advertising Archives. Vancouver: University of British Columbia.
39.
NordmannR (2007) Évolution des conduites d’alcoolisation des jeunes: Motifs d’inquiétude et proposition d’action. Paris: Académie Nationale de Médecine.
40.
RettieRBurchellKBarnhamC (2014) Social normalisation: using marketing to make green normal. Journal of Consumer Behaviour13(1): 9–17.
Rhum Trois Rivières (2013a) Trois rivières, né des îles – Martinique. Mazarine: Mlle Noï. Print advertisement.
44.
Rhum Trois Rivières (2013b) Trois rivières, né des îles – Miami. Mazarine: Mlle Noï. Print advertisement.
45.
RigaudACrapletM (2004) The ‘Loi Évin’: a French exception. The Globe1(2): 33–6.
46.
RobertJ (2014) Oppositional symbolic values of language display, or the case of ‘English’ drinking in France. Social Semiotics24(2): 209–24.
47.
RobertJ (2015) The Loi Évin: ambiguous pedagogies of responsible drinking. In: FlowersRSwanE (eds) Food Pedagogies. London: Ashgate, pp. 113–30.
48.
RoomR (2010a) Dry and wet cultures in the age of globalization. Salute e società9(3): 229–38.
49.
RoomR (2010b) The long reaction against the wowser: the prehistory of alcohol deregulation in Australia. Health Sociology Review19(2): 151–63.
50.
SavicMRoomRMugavinJ, et al. (2016) Defining ‘drinking culture’: a critical review of its meaning and connotation in social research on alcohol problems. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy23(4): 270–82.
51.
ScottLM (1994) Images in advertising: the need for a theory of visual rhetoric. Journal of Consumer Research21(2): 252–73.
52.
SmithLAFoxcroftDR (2009) The effect of alcohol advertising, marketing and portrayal of drinking behaviour in young people: systematic review of prospective cohort studies. BMC Public Health9(1): 1–11.
53.
TabeaudMLysianukB (2009) L’Europe en images … à la manière des offices de tourisme. Physio-Géo: Géographie physique et environnement3(1): 97–112.
54.
TuanY-F (2000) Escapism. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
55.
WaltonS (2001) Out of It: A Cultural History of Intoxication. London: Hamish Hamilton.
56.
WolfN (1990) The Beauty Myth. London: Chatto & Windus.
