Le Franco Phoney

This is the cover of a catalogue I received in the mail a while ago. It was one of four catalogues advertising gardening equipment, such as ride-on mowers and other goodies for people with big backyards.

The man says: “They reimburse the difference if you find the same thing cheaper!”

The woman replies: “And the goods are ready to be used!”

Now, maybe it’s just me again, but isn’t it a bit odd that a woman in a bikini (with a bit more on display than the ‘up for it’ girl also in a bikini, illustrated on the pizza box my previous blog entry) is relaxing right next to an old man using his gardening equipment in a field by a big shop? Apart from the noise he’d be making, isn’t it just a bit dangerous for her?

So, I asked a French friend about the conversation the two are having. I asked her, before showing her the picture, if you could say something like ‘pret a l’emploi’ (‘ready to use’) as a way of saying ‘how about it?’. She said she didn’t think so because it’s how you’d refer to a toy. Then I showed her the picture and she said “ooh la la” (she really did!), and agreed it had been used to infer that the woman is indeed up for it. One of the other lawnmower catalogues featured women in bikinis mowing lawns with big smiles on their tanned faces. So, French gardening catalogues: possibly the only gardening catalogues in the world who feature bikini-clad women who are up for it to entice buyers.