PARIS — The French Agriculture Ministry is facing heat for suggesting racially motivated casting choices in an organic foods advertisement.
Emails seen by POLITICO show that Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard’s office asked that the production company in charge of the ad “cast a Caucasian” first scene of the ad. While the emails do not define the actor’s ethnicity, a slideshow from the production company includes a photograph of an adolescent who is not white.
The ministry also requested that couscous — a dish that traces its origins to North Africa but is extremely popular in France — be replaced in another scene with cassoulet, a staple of southwestern French cuisine.
The production notes, first reported by Libération, will likely stoke the long-running debate on what it means to be French. Modern France is supposed to be colorblind republic where citizenship transcends race, gender and religion, but the reality is much more complex — and makes the request from Genevard’s office regarding the race of actors all the more controversial.
Genevard’s office did not deny the content of its recommendations and told POLITICO that their public relations campaign “aims to speak to everyone.”
The requests prompted some pushback, with one industry representative involved in the promotional operation saying they were “perplexed and even uncomfortable” in the email exchange.
While the couscous-to-cassoulet change requested by the ministry was implemented, the casting suggestion could not be followed. Other, less contentious recommendations included changing the title of one clip, swapping olive oil for sunflower oil in another, and replacing orange and avocado smoothies with something zucchini-based.
The ad is scheduled to air on May 22.
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