Courrier international newspaper: 9-11

I can see all the americans getting pissed because of this ad. But you know what, I like the approach of the campaign.

That is just low! It is totally offensive. I agree, the big idea is great, but the fact that they used TWO tragedies to execute it is inexcusable. There's so many better events they could've done (I think the soviet moon landing one is good).

@guest

I, as an American, am getting pissed for one more reason.. What they are trying to say with this particular image is that the Twin Towers should not have been that tall.. and that would have prevented the attacks?? Bollocks. And yes, reminding people (Americans) of that extremely painful event is very insensitive... especially when you make a downright silly proposition which only serves to trivialize a very serious matter (as if the architects knew one day planes would fly into the towers).

this is not cool

this makes ZERO sense.

In poor taste...could have found other images to get the point across....totally expected from the french....

This whole campaign is just completely offensive (minus the soviet flag ad). And again, why bring up the tragedies in America's past for an international magazine. These images will only cause pain. How can you not take into account the emotions of anyone who is connected to either of these horrible events when moving forward with an ad. How insensitive do you have to be to even suggest that through the possible anticipation of the builders, the twin towers may have been saved. It is rude and offensive and, to be honest, so so lowbrow.

www.markyb.tumblr.com

This is pathetic. On so many levels.

Absolutely awful. Soviet moon landing = clever. This is just terrible.

I'm American, and while there's plenty to get pissed about around here, this is just another ad attempting to garner press with shock value. It's got borrowed interest, dated topical reference and over-promise. The trifecta of mediocrity.

To one up this they need to have holocaust Jewish prisoners holding a few uncooked baked goods in a Nazi encampment.

"Learn to Anticipate"

What an ignorant ad.

hey france, shouldnt you be on strike?

What I get from this photo is that it's being insinuated that the airplanes accidentally crashed into the towers. Are we ignoring the technicality that the events of 9/11 were deliberate? I don't see how reading a magazine would have saved those lives. I'm pretty sure whatever's in their ink wouldn't change their minds or prepared us for something so big.

Absolutely Brilliant!

2,996 people, each of which had a family and friends, died here. Died suddenly, and without reason or fault of their own. So yes, I am highly offended. Not so much as an American as I am as a person.

This ad is incredibly offensive and downright disgusting.

Not surprised. Tastelessness and anti-Americanism sells big in paranoid, irrelevant Europe.

Why do all of their adverts have an American slant? Moon, Kennedy, 9/11? Hmm seems a bit f-ed up that they would focus all of their advertising mojo towards Americans being able to predict tragedies or not accomplishing historic feats. How about one where the Maginot Line actually works? Learn to anticipate this.

the death of thousands and heartbreak of many thousands: what could POSSIBLY be wrong with making a buck off THAT?

Look at the two planes crossing the sky, and how the towers are much shorter than in normal photographs (IIRC). Therefore, it's saying 'read the Courrier, and you'll know when to magically remove a few floors from your buildings so that planes fly right over them.'

This is stupid on a downright surreal level. Is this part of a series? Maybe show New Orleans under a glass bubble, or a Rwandan village protected by military-trained Pokemon. What other disasters and horrors could be prevented with some foresight and impossible solutions?

So, would it be fair to depict Paris with an impenetrable wall around it in order to prevent Nazis from occupying the City circa 1940?

yep this is harsh

Next one should be a group of Nazi soldiers storming Paris with "Learn to Anticipate". Fucking French.

This is extremely offensive. Definitely, boycotting Courier and any other company that uses this adveritising agent. May a plane fly into the ad agency.

I SMELL FREEDOM!

This ad is completely ridiculous. If this is true and not a hoax, Saatchi should be ashamed of themselves for trivializing such an event. I hope the entire world bashes the hell out of this client for trusting such a moronic agency to produce this. What the hell did they hope to achieve. The message as it stands is "Learn to anticipate the most unimaginable event ever."

What's next, an image of Paris during WWII with a detour sign written in German pointing away from the city. Give me a break.

What a crock. I think atb2005 said it best. This ad pisses me off.

Both ads in the series take a poke at the US. Plus a hack just out of art school line about anticipate for a medium that is out of date.Y eah the French are real good at anticipating see. WWI and WWII. Pompous morons.

I hate America and even I feel this is totally classless and insensitive.

It's not even clever.

Una de las cosas que me encantan de esta polémica es que les muestra a los estadounidenses (porque americanos somos de Canadá a Argentina) que las tragedias duelen mas cuando el mundo se dedica a restregártelas en la cara y en verdad sé de tragedias porque en Colombia tenemos una cada día.

Así que ya superen las torres. Buen aviso Francia.

The concept is a poor visual solution, and poorly retouched at that.

Malheureusement, le grade le plus bas que je puisse donner c'est une star.
Sadly the lowest grade I can give this is 1 star.

I'm mildly confused. Was the creator supposed to envision the attacks when he started planning the buildings in the 60's? What are we anticipating?

Uh-oh...this is extremely insensitive. French agency as well.

Probably being insensitive here, but the ads offend me more for how downright stupid they are than for the shock value (which I just find in poor taste).

Everyone involved with this ad should be embarrassed. The creatives, the cd, and the client. It's one thing to produce a bad ad. It's another thing entirely to publicly show that you have no class and no taste. This ad is completely insensitive. With a "concept" like that, you could come up with hundreds if executions. This is not only easy, it's cheap. I'd be embarrassed to have my name up in the credits...it's essentially pointing a finger at yourself and saying "not only am I a hack, but I lack a certain level of taste, sophistication, and decorum." All involved should be ashamed.

Why not do something with Hitler and the holocaust? I mean if we're implying "people should have known" then let's go back and correct all the world's tragedies... maybe the company could also do something with rewriting history... French-American war. It seems the only French victory is in the French Revolution when they were fighting among themselves.

Perhaps their next "Learn to Anticipate" ad should be a map of the Maginot Line?

was this really published somewhere? I find it hard to believe that anybody actually picked it up

ugh totally typical of the French. Blatant ant-american trash disguised as a creative execution.

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I want verification that a) this is an actual commissioned ad. which I highly doubt and b) the people listed were actually involved. even as a spec project it'd be insanely stupid to let something like this out. I'm pretty they even misspelled the name of the creative director. Fishy.

Cheese eating surrender monkeys!

I think this is like a boy playing with matches, naive and doesn't know what's the outcome... The idea behind it is down right stupid.

I bet the agency didn't anticipate all the furious comments.
'Learn to anticipate that, France!"

"Learn to anticipate."

Let's hope that the creatives involved in this campaign have anticipated that they won't be sending their CV's to the USA anytime soon.

Maybe they should have used an image of the battle of Trafalgar, or of the French surrendering to the Nazis.

"Learn to Anticipate"

Another instance of agency work being on equal intellectual and spiritual footing with the lowest anonymous internet hit-and-run troll.

if it comes to 911, i like this one best;)
http://www.dula.tv/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/911-blast-points-ac...

Why is it that every year, right before 9/11, we get a tasteless new 9/11-themed advertisement?

above all this is just a bad execution. how can you anticipate a terrorist bombing. I give this one a D- using shock value instead of clear thinking is hack work.

This entire campaign is ridiculously anti-USA. Kennedy, 9/11, and the moon landing? If anything, Courrier has presented themselves as a heavily biased news source: comparable to Fox in the states.

For all of you offended by these images - what are you going to do about it? Simply b*tch on the internet? Why not write to Saatchi & Saatchi and let them know how you feel. Then, if you're still offended, why not write to Saatchi & Saatchi's other customers and let them know how you feel about their advertising agency.

The real irony here is that the builders of the twin towers DID anticipate a plane-strike on their buildings, and built them to withstand a hit from a 737-sized aircraft. Think about that, won't you?

I don't know what you guys are moaning about - the idea here is very clear: reading French newspapers prevents terrorist attacks.

Duh.

to the guest that referenced fox news as biased-yes, it stands out because the rest of he msm leans so far left. do you prefer no differing pov? with just one state controlled cnn, msnbc, abc, nbc...? scary thought.

as far as the campaign is concerned, too many flaws to list, but many intelligent people have done a nice job of pointing them out.

To the Courrier International Newspaper: How many floors does the Pentagon have? FIVE floors above ground plus two basement levels.......Let's see that "what if" comical picture you idiots at Saatchi & Saatchi, France, Creative Director: Cristophe Coffre, Art Director: Arnaud Van Den Abeele, Copywriter: Timothée Gaube....progressives like you love to imagine what would have been but they never comprehend what is or what could be, no common sense, no Murphy's law mentality, just plain educated idiocy...I'll be the one laughing next when you create a picture of your streets widened by 25 lanes, so wide that millions of Muslims can pray in your streets; after they shut down your cities and take away all your rights to publish this story (wouldn't want to offend Sharia Law now would we?) Idiots all of you!

Now I can add the French Flag to my Koran burning party on 9/11!!!

Great!!!

Sorry for those lame guys that believe America is the center of the Universe, BIG HELLO for you fellas, this is a FRENCH AD, in France as in the rest of the world, this is funny, we really don't feel ashamed about "the one time, some body hit you" do you remember, Vietnam, Afganistan, Irak, and all those times when America did not care about hurting and killing people, so please, we all enjoy an ad like this, it would be totally unappropriated in America, but agin is a French Ad, by the way did I mention, that french people kinda hate americans? As the rest of the world does...

Outrageous.
Disgraceful.
Ignorant.
Insensitive.
Provocative.
Polarising.
Great ad.

This is most upsetting due to the fact that it is practically saying that is we had anticipated and built the twin towers shorter, then the hijacked planes would have missed...

Awesome guys. I don't care if you are anti or pro American, it's very distasteful to create this ad, especially so close to the anniversary.

so cool

This may be offensive to some. Ok, actually it's offensive to some. But what is even more impressive is how so many here just focus on the size of the buildings in the ad. You are missing the point. Avoiding 9/11 wasn't about designing shorter edifices but about being conscious of what international politics can carry. What goes around comes around. And having a larger critical perspective (that's what Courriel international is actually selling) may help to see it coming and prevent it.

I still think these ads are poor. So a French ad agency decided to base their campaign around taking cheap shots at the United States, oooh, hooray. There are plenty of ways to suggest that a magazine is intelligent and thought provoking without appearing gradeschool about it. See The Economist.

the french should remember who cam e in and rebuilt there country after world war II maybe if those plans had flown into some french buildings they would feel differently 9/11 is a day that will never be forgotten wether it has been 9 years or 109 years these ads are very offensive to me who saw those buildings being built and then coming down. the french should be ashamed of themselves

Remember there were children in a day care. How would anyone of you who said you do not mind this ad feel if your son or daughter died that day. It is not about the message it is about not being creative enough to come up with something tasteful to get your message across. If they want to talk about being prepared, and pick on americans, try apollo 13. There was a tragic event that had a positive outcome. I am sure that something could have been done there. This is sick. The death of one is as important as 6 million, and none should be exploited to make money. Whether it is 9 years or 900 it should not happen. We are not always right and we are not always wrong, either way though I am proud to be an American!

Dear fools who approve of this pathetic ad,
please note that one day soon when you are all bowing to Mecca under the sword of Islam,you'll be praying for us Americans to come save your a$$es again...

aww look who are offended now

On a professional level, I think the ad is quite good. It gets noticed, and creates reaction and discussion.
It does not matter if it is tasteless, Its about selling newspapers, and capitalism (and other -isms alike) do not care for taste.

And the ad is to the point; this is about one of the events that particularly shaped the past decade, so for a newspaper that is focused on getting
foreign point of view to french readers, I think that in that, the ad is much stronger than the moon one. (The moon one is very good in its own, that the posture of the astronaut is perfect.
You can see him think oh damn, they beat us to it.)

Overall, after reading the reactions:

When it comes to taste or moral standards, it's always surprisiçng to see how americans seem to rate themselves higher then the rest of us.
In the 14.26 reaction, guest forgot to mention, between death of 1 and death of 6 million the death of 2000, and of the 10ths of thousands of victims in Irak who didnt ask for anything.

US has been the mayor superpower from 1918 till now. You dont be a superpower with moral standards that get in the way.
Ask the relatives of those who dared have left-wing ideas in central america. Then it was lefties,today its the muslims, whos next?

We bring you the good, better like it, if not we bomb you as and take your gas...

DeGaulle much?

So bad.

Worst of the three. Not only because we should stay away from 9/11 ads, but because it doesn't make sense. The planes would have aimed at another building or aimed lower.

I think these ads are great!

These ads are great :)

French people need to take a bath...they can't see the real world past their own stink...learn to anticipate!

The French always try to push their opinion, and yet histury always proves them wrong. God Bless the USA.

These images are made to think not to react directly on emotions. This is just a trap for fools.

The many comments suggest that the trap worked well ...

Hello from France.

Vince Taylor

"Guest | Sat, 2010-09-11 15:44

"The French always try to push their opinion, and yet histury always proves them wrong. God Bless the USA."

Do you mean like for the hidden mass destruction weapons in Irak?

This is as funny as a Jewish Holocaust ad.

These are bads.
They tried to make something "funny", or "clever", but there is a huge leak of talent. Thoses creatives are obviously really really juniors...They tried but they felt. If I were them, I won't but that crap in my portfolio. N'importe quel DC digne de ce nom vous dégagera avec un coup de pied au cul.
This make no sense, this offensive and bad provocation. Vous êtes totalement gratuit dans cette campagne...
If you want to try to be outrageous, don't forget to be clever. This is dumbshit.

Apparently it's the French who are misinformed. 911 was an inside job from the get go. The American government had been informed the whole time!

I do think it is distasteful. But regardless, I think it is a weak idea and an extremely BORING headline. I think the art director and writer should have been in the trade center 9 years ago.

"Guest | Mon, 2010-09-13 10:18

Apparently it's the French who are misinformed. 911 was an inside job from the get go. The American government had been informed the whole time!"

One of the most interesting views. If this point is true, the ad could be indeed irrelevant.

I think this ad is totally offensive and is as act of war. You Yankies should be bombing Paris as we speak......... Oh hold on France doesn't have oil.
It's just an ad guys get over it

If they would use, let´s say, the TITANIC, well, i think nobody would get upset. the think that makes this a bad taste ad is the fact that this event is just to recent (9 years are just not enough), and the implications that it brings (american pride, hate for them, and so on).

anyway, the idea is not new tough, i saw this kind of idea before.

do you anticipate with your architecture? is it the best way saatch has found in terms of underlining learning anticipation??

I can't decide if an ad creating so much controversy is a good thing. or not.

i'm an american. you're a dick for making this ad.