In celebration of Jacques Tati’s (wiki) 102nd birthday, a grand exhibition is taking place in Paris. The show is promoted throughout the city, including in the Parisian public transport network. There’s one difference between the original design (shown left) and the one displayed on buses and in metro stations (right):
Métrobus, the company that provides the public transport posters is apparently so afraid of the Loi Envin (which forbids tobacco and alcohol advertising in France) that they replaced Tati’s pipe with a silly yellow windmill. Cinema buffs are obviously angry, and even the health minister thinks that this form of censorship “borders the ridicule”.
As far as I’m concerned, Jacques Tati was one of the greatest pipe smokers of all, so it’s no surprise that he features prominently in our Gallery of Certified Frogsmokers:
i suspect the “créatifs” are quite happy with all the free media buzz for the expo that the “silly yellow windmill” has stirred up… was it on purpose or a fluke?
I don’t think it was intentional
i’ve heared that Tati wasn’t a smoker but just used his pipe as a prop
=> http://timescorrespondents.typepad.com/charles_bremner/2009/04/paris-metro-censors-monsieur-hulot-.html