Pave: Europa's Revolutionary Christian Roots

Le jour 359 de Sarko

I have chosen not to insert the reference to the Christian heritage in the constitution. Rather I appeal to you to persuade me of its necessity.

Valery Giscard d'Estaing,
paper princeling, the bureaucrat's Socrates,
EU spiritual medium, and former président
de la République Française,
here stooping to wave off Christian Europa
BRUSSELS November 25, 2004 (Telegraph)

These Christians could at least have the good grace to accept that they lost the argument.

EU official,
suffering the uppity Euro-Christians
(ibid.)

Ah, but if Euro-Christians did indeed lose an argument without a forum, well, they still had the last laugh (and here).

We were reminded of the EU -- an EU cut loose from its Christian moorings by Brussels -- by the brilliant Eurostar advertisment, below, recently seen in a Paris Metro quotidien.

JESUS EL CHE
What Would This Jesus Do? Don't Ask

[Photo hat tip: Carine]

This advertisement is brilliant not in its intended message but in the revealed message.

The intended message is to promote travel to a popular London pub and after-hours bar called Redchurch, so named because situated on Redchurch Street in placid, gentrified Bethnal Green, a hotbed of culottism. Redchurch accepts American Express, Mastercard, and Visa. Children and babies are admitted.

The revealed message is the advertiser's dead-on read of the Parisian prospect.

Advertising does not trade in hard ideas. It creates a cloud of associated soft concepts. The ad shows the Christ to play on "church" and smartly kits Him out with the Korda Che beret* to play on "red". Yet neither of these associations are relevant to the advertised destination, Redchurch. The advertiser has not made these associations arbitrarily.

The advertiser knows the Parisian prospect has probably never heard of Redchurch the bar, thus its presentation can be complete fancy, thus the Che-like Jesus. He also knows the Parisian prospect adores Che (an adoration wilfully ignorant of "the butcher of La Cabaña") and, like the EU official above, disdains Christianity and the heroes of Christianity (and here). Thus a Che-like Christ, a Prince Of Peace who has thrown in with the bougie left and its muzzy romance of guerilla socialism. The Parisian prospect will find such a deconstruction irresistible and hops the next Eurostar to see this London curiosity for himself.

Ticket sold. [Pause.] Such are the guiles of the advertising trade.

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* The beret of the Guerrillero Heroico.

PFFT (What is this?): Co-opting Jesus 5 | Sanitizing Che 5 | Selling tickets 3½ | Rayonnement français 0