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Campaign is latest attempt by European governments to capitalise on uncertainty in UK
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France has launched a UK advertising blitz as it tries to lure away disillusioned businesses following Rachel Reeves’s tax raid.
Adverts promoting the “Choose France” campaign have appeared in UK newspapers in the weeks since Labour’s controversial Budget at the end of October.
One full-page advert, which appeared in The Times just days after the Budget, featured a photo of Roxanne Varza, the director of Station F, a start-up campus in Paris that is the largest of its kind in the world.
The picture, which is set against France’s tricolour flag, is accompanied by the slogan: “Make It Iconic. Choose France.”
Another ad appeared in The Times last week featuring professor Fabrice Barlesi, a top specialist in lung cancer research. Similar ads have also appeared in The Financial Times.
Andrew Griffith, shadow technology secretary, said: “It’s a sorry state of affairs if British companies are considering fleeing to France, which has historically hardly been a beacon of agile capitalism.
“Rachel Reeves’s Budget created a hostile tax environment for business and with Labour now passing French-style, trade union-inspired employment laws, perhaps there are some British businesses concluding that the new centre-Right government in France offers better prospects than four years more of Starmer.”
Emmanuel Macron’s government launched its “Choose France” campaign a year ago to encourage investors, businesses and individuals from around the world to relocate to France.
Ministers said the campaign, which features sites including the Eiffel Tower, Mont Saint-Michel and the Cité du Vin in Bordeaux, was designed to ensure that France would “shine, attract and dream even more”.
The advertising push was originally targeted at five countries – Germany, Canada, India, the US and the United Arab Emirates.
However, the campaign appears to have expanded into the UK after Labour drew criticism from businesses over its decision to raise taxes by £40bn in the Budget.
A spokesman for the French Embassy denied its international rollout was linked to countries’ domestic policies.
Richard Exon, founder of ad agency Joint, said the ads were a “timely reminder that international relations are heading into tougher, less consensus driven times”.
He added: “Everyone competes with everyone, all of the time. Labour needs to deliver its promise to be ‘the most pro-business government ever’ sharpish so we can compete on equal terms and from a position of strength.”
Greg Silverman, global director of brand economics at Interbrand, added: “Country branding like Choose France is likely to grow in investment and importance for the foreseeable future.
“The notion that globalised trade has been good for all has been the dominant idea since the Second World War. However, globalisation is under scrutiny as policies that favour localisation and ‘nation first’ are on the rise.
“It will be an interesting challenge for governments to brand themselves, but the stakes are too high for them to pass on the requirement to do so.”
It is not the first time a foreign country has sought to capitalise on political uncertainty in the UK through advertising.
In 2016, Germany’s Free Democratic Party deployed a mobile advertising van in central London urging British start-ups to relocate following the Brexit referendum. The tongue-in-cheek poster said: “Keep calm and move to Berlin.”
The French campaign has featured billboard adverts in key locations including airports, business districts and diplomatic buildings around the world, as well as online.
The campaign has also featured at international trade fairs, culminating in the “Choose France” summit at the Palace of Versailles in Paris.
France attracted a record €15bn (£12.6bn) of investment at this year’s event, including a €4bn pledge by Microsoft to expand its artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure in the country.
The French Embassy said: “The communication campaign ‘Make it iconic. Choose France’ seeks to promote France’s attractiveness internationally. Several high-profile figures and places are shown, each in their own way embodying bold stories and attitudes, and together urging us to experience, embrace and share the boldness that makes France what it is. The figures provide a gender-balanced representation of various fields of excellence: gastronomy, fashion, science, sport, entrepreneurship and art.
“Planning for the campaign’s international roll-out began several months ago, ahead of the French edition of the international Choose France summit, to be held in Paris at the beginning of next year. The campaign was launched in October 2023. It is continuing in 2024, spreading progressively to new countries.
“The campaign can be seen in 10 countries, including the United Kingdom, and is totally unrelated to those countries’ domestic policy agendas.”
The Treasury has been contacted for comment.
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