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Paris Transport Board Launches Campaign To End Rudeness

by Jessica Festa (RSS feed) on Jul 29th 2012 at 4:00PM

Often thought of as a rude culture, the French don't have the best reputation when it comes to politeness. However, the Paris transport authority, RAPT, is attempting to put an end to this with a new poster campaign showing locals how their actions appear to onlookers.

According to news.com.au, the campaign features large posters depicting Parisians as animals, as the people around them stare in shock (shown right). To allow everyone to voice their frustrations, RAPT has also created a website where people can submit their own captioned photographs.

Are they creating this campaign completely based off stereotypes? Not according to data. A recent RAPT survey found that 97 percent of passengers had witnessed "uncivil" behavior on Paris public transport. This comes two years after a separate survey completed by tourists voted Parisians the rudest people in Europe. Additionally, in 2007 a report by the Committee for Modernization of the French Hotel Trade found that 25 percent of customer complaints were caused by rude service in France.

Do you think this campaign will help or hinder rudeness in France?

[Image via RAPT]

Filed under: Arts and Culture, Learning, Business, Europe, France, Transportation, News

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Allison Jul 29th 2012 4:22PM

Hey Jessica,

Great article, although I'm not sure how much of an impact this is going to have on Parisians! The pictures are pretty funny, and if you google "RATP restons civils publicite" you can see more of them (I tried to find a link to the set but couldn't find one). For those who speak French, there's also a whole slew of cheesy expressions - i.e. "Jean-Luc a un prénom. Ce n'est donc pas la peine de lui traiter de tous les noms" (Jean-Luc has a name. So you don't have to call him names." and "Qui a validé peut voyager l'esprit leger" or something like that. All of the expressions in these ads are wordplays on common French expressions or quotes from famous literature.

And just FYI, it's actually RATP (not RAPT) - Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens.

Allison

Ernie Jul 29th 2012 8:03PM

I have had several dealings with the French people and I must agree they are the most rudest people I have ever met.

Unexpected Traveller Jul 30th 2012 1:40PM

Parisians are rude but I think they're just as rude as any other nation. What I do think is that they are a little more arrogant than others; one particular waiter trying to flirt with three young Americans proved my point in fact: http://wp.me/ppqxP-2R

R2 Jul 31st 2012 5:57PM

No! People will be people, we all know that. We all have that "me first" attitude, some stronger and some more demure, though I've noticed that Parisians in particular have a bad “city wide” case of the strong “special me” attitude. They are apparently sooo much better than anyone else is. I was over there with the military for a bit and all of us had a dreadful time in Paris itself, (and it's spreading). Several of us could speak fairly understandable French and that seemed to enrage those we had dealings with even more. The restaurants and stores, where you’d think they’d at least try to hide their distain, really acted quite pompous. But not so much in the smaller towns and though we had to go further we drove out of Paris to do our shopping and restaurant hopping etc. The people were sooo much more friendly.