Americans are trained to expect the French to be rude, beret-wearing snobs who are too serious to lower their wine glasses and laugh. Cursory judgments of cultures are silly, and that's what makes seeing a new McDonald's France campaign with American characters so entertaining.
Last month, McDonald's France released the "Breads & America" line of sandwiches, which includes the Double Cornbread Barbeque, Grand Bagel Cheese, and the Double Shiny Bacon. No one really seems to know why McDonald's went with "shiny," but the French ads translate the word to doré, which means "golden" - apparently Americans love shiny, golden bread:
McDonald's France
They look good, no?
Here's our favorite ad from the campaign, which is arguably the most accurate. A couple of American police officers pull up to some kids enjoying lunch and start harassing them:
This one takes a charmingly outdated reference to Pamela Anderson's iconic bouncy jogging from the 90s TV show "Baywatch" and gives her a Valley Girl accent:
The last one has an aggressive hockey player skating through a library to bully a guy eating a burger. It's inexplicable why any of this is happening, or why the sport of hockey represents the United States, but we love how the actor yells "Gimme your Grand Bagel Cheese!":
France is McDonald's second biggest market in the world.