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Franceâ€™s big brands reel under online spoof assault

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Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 13:09

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EMUworld

A succession of employee suicides at France Telecom prompted a video posted on a website showing its workers killing themselves to the tine of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”

Paris: The rise of video-sharing websites such as YouTube and Dailymotion is proving to be a headache for some of France’s biggest companies as their image comes under fire from satirical online videos.

“Brands were in the mindset of having one message, one broadcast,” Emmanuel Vivier, chief executive of marketing agency Vanksen said. “Now people reply to the brands’ messages, remix them, redistribute them…impacting their reputation.

“It’s becoming harder and harder to tell the difference b/w a real advert and a fake one,” he said.

French grocer Carrefour, which is the second-biggest retailer in the world, was last month forced to disown and condemn a fake video advertisement that implied its discount food range contained human remains.

The video, which first appeared on Google site YouTube in early December, depicts an angelic little girl munching reluctantly on her grandmother’s bones as her parents egg her on.

Phone network operator France Telecom squirmed under the spotlight after a series of employee suicides prompted video parodies.

One clip posted on the Dailymotion website shows France Telecom workers killing themselves in various ways to the tine of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”