Impératif français critical of government’s French ads

Impératif français critical of government’s French ads

The President of French-language advocacy group Impératif français, Jean-Paul Perreault, severely criticized the Quebec government’s advertising campaign for the promotion of French (video below). In an interview with CHIP 101.9 on Journée internationale de la francophonie (March 20), Perrault stated that the campaign wasn’t meeting its goals.

“Well, subject to criticism, yes, but, you know the presence, and there, the listeners know it very well, the presence of anglicisms in the French language in Quebec or elsewhere in the world, well, we have to make them disappear,” he said (translated). “Especially since there are equivalents in French. So, we don’t have to speak Franglais, speak a kind of patois that is very difficult to understand, French is an international language. What I do not like in the government’s approach is to target, to tell all of Quebec that they speak badly, or the equivalent, and to emphasize decline at the same time. You will understand that instead of giving energy, it doesn’t give any and that’s where I’m having trouble with this ad. It is because it relies on the presence of Franglais in Quebec, but it is the result of our history and our geography.”

According to Impératif français, instead of targeting “the decline of French” through the use of anglicisms, this advertisement would have been much better if it had targeted subjects such as the language of work, the integration of allophone and anglophone newcomers, access to post-secondary studies in French or even obtaining exclusive jurisdiction over immigration, education, culture, language, etc. for Quebec.

The full (French-language) interview with Perrault is available here.