Pave: La botch-ibou Redux

Le jour 412 de Sarko

Our imagination knows no bounds.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin,
former prime minister and transcultural errand boy,
explaining the expansive French approach to relevance
(infra)

Remember la vachibou, the transgendered multicultural botch of a Norman cow with the antlers of a North American bull moose (not a bull caribou as its name is meant to suggest)? It was presented by the French Republic to the nonplussed citizenry of Québec as the French mascot for the 400th anniversary of the founding of Québec City.

VACHIBOU LOGO QUIETLY KILLED OFF

June 27, 2008 (NatPo) - The French government has quietly killed off the antlered dairy cow [Vachibou, "Cowibou"] it unveiled last year as the mascot of France's sponsorship of the festivities. ... The work of a young French graphic designer, the Vachibou was to be sent back to the drawing board for some fine-tuning.

"The project is dead," Jean Beaudoin, a spokesman for the French consulate in Quebec City confirmed recently:

The image was not modified. It was simply abandoned.

DOPEY GIFT FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF fRANCE
Bollixed And Aborted

Chantal Moreno, the general commissioner of France's 400th anniversary committee, denied that the Vachibou fell victim to the mocking reception in Quebec. The government simply preferred to invest in concrete projects rather than communications, she said. The committee had entertained the idea of putting the Vachibou image on T-shirts and key chains, but that costs money.

"If you can find me somebody who is ready to make T-shirts," the Vachibou could be resurrected, she suggested from Paris:

The French state is not a business.

Ah, Mdm. Moreno, no need to convince us.

PFFT (What is this?): La botchibou, requiescat in pace 5 | Rayonnement français 0