French sell beef as object of desire

By CATHERINE FIELD in PARIS

You can almost reach out and touch the tanned, glistening flesh with its promise of sensual bliss. We're not talking human bodies here, we're talking meat - more precisely beef.

After months of being battered and bruised by worries about mad cow disease, the French beef industry is fighting back by pitching its product as a ticket to oral ecstasy.

All across France, posters are sprouting that border on food pornography. One shows a man seated on a train, his arm around a life-sized steak. Another has a woman on the balcony of an apartment having enjoyed a fling with a piece of silverside. Her bejeaned leg is sensually wrapped around the meat and her face sports a beatific smile. A disapproving granny looks on from next door.

The advertising slogan: "Don't be afraid any more to say: I Love Beef."

Franck Besson, of Leo Burnett advertising agency, who conceived the campaign, says the idea is to present a creative ideal that is very literal: "love beef and why not love loving?"

"The most important thing was to get away from the prevailing thinking among consumers. In the context of mad cow disease, to confess that you loved red meat was an act of bravery."

Beef is one of the biggest sectors of the French agriculture business, which in itself is the most vital sector of the economy.

The contagion of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) prompted farmers to worry that their herds would be affected.

Their response was to maintain a ban on British beef despite injunctions from the European Court of Justice that British products should be allowed onto the French market, and to launch an awareness campaign. The public was reminded that every piece of French beef in a shop could be traced to an individual animal.

Even so, beef took a bashing and in 2000, beef sales slumped by 40 per cent. In its place consumers turned to fish and chicken, and old favourites such as horse meat. Ostrich and wild boar appeared on the supermarket shelves.

Now that confidence has been restored, meat wholesaler Charal is campaigning to turn beef into an object of desire. Consumers are invited to enjoy the thrill of filet mignon, boeuf bourguignon or a good traditional pot au feu.

"The aim is to optimise the sensuality of the product," said Christian Plat, at Charal.

"In contrast to other brands, we decided not to put across the safety of our food. Market research shows that people already have confidence in our products. We decided to go a bit further."