Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

[poll id=”2″]

Votes will end on Friday July 4th 2008.

By admin

42 thoughts on “Poll #1: The Award Name”
  1. Sorry about the website going down this afternoon for a few minutes – had to upgrade the WordPress Engine so we could use the Poll Plugin. Awesome work by Lester Chan [http://lesterchan.net/] – We donated.

    On another note, you can now register an avatar with gravatar.com and have it show up in the comment section.

  2. Marc
    good choices
    as a PR guy, i don’t like THE FREEDOM FRY AWARD, it will backfire on you.  FREEDON FRIES WAS ALWAYS A STUPID WORD COINED IN STUPID USA….do not use that. Please!

    Freedy the Freedon Fry is also POORLY WORDED AND not good, IMHO 

    so i will VOTE for THE FRANCOPHOBE AWARD, that says it all. GOOD NAME 

    PS : GALLOPHONE AWARD is too strange sounding..FRANCOPHOBE IS GOOD. BEST. to start with, i like THE FRANCOPHOBE AWARDS, it says IT ALL>>>> GO GO GO

  3. i cannot stresss enough, how FREEDOM FRY AWARD will backfire on you and cause you more trouble. stay far away from that word, that term. it is very stupid. cute, but stupid name for this prize.

    again

    FRANCOPHONE AWARD, says it all….the media will pick up on this word, and explain to readerse what FRANCOPHOBE means, etc. so it’s a good learning tool….freedom fry award will BACKFIRE.

    danny

  4. Thanks for the feedback – Vox populi, vox dei. If anyone comes up with a better name, please use the comment section so we can add new options, in which case we’ll have to allow for multiple voting (2 votes per person).

    Vote for Pedro !

  5. About the Freedom Fry, Danny, I have an email alert for any news item with that comment, and it is now 100 % negative.

    No, he’s not whipping up a special prix fixe menu or creating a French rebuke to the abominable concept of “Freedom Fries.”
    http://blogs.sfweekly.com/shookdown/2008/06/famed_chef_cooks_up_beats_not.php

    … tough love speech there was appreciation, applause and respect from the Israeli’s–and no sign of menu’s offering “freedom fries” in the Knesset cafeteria.
    http://www.prospectsforpeace.com/2008/06/at_israels_parliament_a_french.html

    We must remember the resulting “Freedom Fries, not french fries” attack on the French. The president’s attack dog, John Bolton, was sent in to tarnish the
    http://www.nwfdailynews.com/opinion/weapons_8877___article.html/bush_lie.html

    Response to this active opposition started the boycott of goods like French fries, which quickly became “freedom fries,” thanks to Reps.
    http://media.www.dailyemerald.com/media/storage/paper859/news/2008/06/23/Opinion/Study.Abroad.Experience.In.America.Has.Been.Valuable-3384156.shtml

    in favour “freedom fries”, and the proud President of the Fifth French Republic was derided by the tabloid press as a “cheese-eating surrender monkey”.
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/06/13/do1306.xml

  6. I voted for francophobe award.
    Because francophobes is what this is all about and it is a clear cut, no ambiguity award.

    Freedom fry award will get people confused and french-haters may even claim it as a badge of honor whereas francophobe carries a clear meaning of xenophobia and who wants to be associated with that ?

  7. Barney – I saw that article in the sidebar, yes a pathetic piece. I have yet to investigate the context, I think this has to do with Sri Lanka / Ceylon  etc.

  8. I must say, despite the comments above, I like a lot the Freedom Fry award. It’s fun, and makes this thing not too serious. Which I like, it sounds to me a bit like the Big brother award.

    But effectively, I’m not sure it will be well taken, maybe that would make us appear arrogant one more time…it’s never that good to insist on mistakes to make fun of, not if you want to be taken seriously.

  9. Danny Bloom — how long have you been in PR? “Francophobe awards”, in my humble opinion, may be seen more as an attack than as a humorous (albeit serious) reprimand.

    You see, what we want is to ridicule the bashers, and make people see how ridiculous it is. We don’t want them lynched by an angry mob (besides, it’s not happening). Often, the shortest way to peoples’ hearts and minds is through laughter — laughing at the bigots, that is.

    That’s why they use “chickenhawk” instead of “cowardly belligerent republicans”


  10. I have the same take on the matter as André Wernesson. As he says, ‘You see, what we want is to ridicule the bashers, and make people see how ridiculous it is.” (and if I may add, how idiotic they, French bashers are.)

    “Francophobe award” indeed lends it a serious note and is technically the appropriate term but we don’t want to make the whole enterprise seem <i>lugubre.</i>

  11. A suggestion from one of our readers : Well…maybe the critics are are right.  Maybe it should be coupled with something like the Lafayette award [or the Lafayette-Jefferson Award] for the person who has done the most to improve Franco-American relations. 

  12. “(and if I may add, how idiotic they, French bashers are.)”

    Precisely. We could actually photoshop the contestants’ faces onto freedom fry “bodies”, (well, actually, French Fries with legs and arms) and make a nice page where you can visit the contestants. It would all be done in Rocky style, as if they were ready to duke it out.

  13. If we turn french-bashers into cool cartoon characters, I’m afraid the impact will be somewhat limited.

    We need to ridicule them I agree but not in the pretty mild way that you describe, andré.

    I mean we’re talking people who are responsible for an entire generation of americans growing up persuaded that the French are cowards and stinky (it’s no longer a joke now for them).

    That’s really serious. We need to hit them as hard as we can.

  14. “cool cartoon characters”

    COOL CARTOON CHARACTERS?

    You mean being a grotesque, ridiculous, talking, walking FRIED POTATO is COOL?!?

    So, you mean that, like, if they portray president Bush as a turnip-head, he’s cool. ‘cos he’s a turnip-man. Cool.

  15. Let’s not get me wrong here: We’re going for ridiculous. If some people have no sense of humor and can’t get the joke’s on the bashers, then tough. I don’t like people without a sense of humor.

  16. Keep the debate going, the more we hammer this out, the better it gets.
    “I’m enjoying this – I’m enjoying this” – Margaret Thatcher

  17. I don’t want to humor people who think my little boy stinks and is a coward and are doing everyhting they can so their own boy believe it.

    It’s not a comedy rally. It’s a struggle against bigotry and injustice.

  18. Here’s a perfect example of a hypocritical turncoat who’s trying to gloss over his anti-French hatred of yesteryear. Rush Limbaugh who used to refer to John Kerry as “French-looking” and mocking him as “Jean Cheri” or “Jean F. Cheri” now wants to be seen as pro-French.

    Now this hypocrite wants to bee seen as a Francophile : “Unlike many right-wing talk-show hosts, Limbaugh does not view France with hostility. On the contrary, he is a Francophile. His salon, he told me, is meant to suggest Versailles. His main guest suite, which I did not personally inspect, was designed as an exact replica of the presidential suite of the George V Hotel in Paris. ” Source : http://reason.com/blog/show/127323.html and the New York Times

  19. And more surrender jokes… why ? Of course, a Frenchman lost something, to a Briton !!!
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2008/07/03/stmoor103.xml

    “Andy Murray made a monkey of cheese-eating Frenchman Richard Gasquet at Wimbledon
    By Brian Moore

    Last Updated: 2:22am BST 03/07/2008

    I have always said you cannot trust the French; Primates capitulards et toujours en quête de fromages (cheese-eating surrender monkeys). Just when Richard Gasquet was cruising to a three-set win against Andy Murray at Wimbledon, he goes all French and surrenders.”
    So I nominate Brian Moore for this award ! 😉

  20. Barney, you’re getting it all wrong!

    “I don’t want to humor people who think my little boy stinks and is a coward and are doing everyhting they can so their own boy believe it.
    It’s not a comedy rally. It’s a struggle against bigotry and injustice.”

    Me neither! Remember, we’re laughing AT the bashers, not WITH them!

    The fact is, if it’s people who already are anti-French, chances are, no matter how we present it, they’ll stick to their wretched ideas.

    But we must win ourselves those sane people who DON’T — and the best way is not to “accuse” them (which is never appreciated) but to be more “with” them.

  21. Look, it’s like political caricatures. You may make a caricature to denounce something which you think a certain party or politician did wrong. And it’s funny. Of course, the said politician won’t find it funny. Perhaps, neither will his party colleagues, or his die-hard factionneers. But anyone who isn’t biased will grasp it, and understand how ridiculous that politician was.

    According to your reasonning, there should be no political caricatures in the papers, only grim copperplate engravings portraying the horror of what they did!

  22. “So I nominate Brian Moore for this award !”

    May I second that. The Britons always, no matter what, have managed to make their bashing more venomous, more offensive, more hateful. The Americans try, but lack that special touch.

  23. This is for Barney:

    http://www.historicalstockphotos.com/details/photo/407_ulysses_s_grant_on_a_trapeze.html

    OK, so here we’ve got this fine, fine example of late 19th century political cartoons, about our buddy Ulysses S Grant.

    Now before we start objecting here that he’s cool because he’s portrayed as a cool trapezist or something, let’s have a look at his attributes: The president is obviously making a tremendous strain to make his whole shennanigan work — hanging onto different rings and bars such as “whiskey” and “third term” and especially, “corruption”, with a whole multitude of tiny, ridiculous carnies (his chamber members) weighing down the whole, absurd, fragile construction of state Grant has made.

    Now, let’s not say this is uneffective! The ridicule, the absurdness, so plainly exposed, make it impossible to object that “This isn’t a comedy marathon; this is making corruption funny! We’re talking about a drunkard who’s spending the taxpayer’s money irresponsibly, not some cool trapezist!”

    This one is even less subtle: http://www.historicalstockphotos.com/details/photo/409_ulysses_s_grant_cartoon.html

    Grant is portrayed as a hobo followed by some stray dogs (his cabinet members).

    Does funny exclude effective? Au contraire!

  24. May I add one small consideration in favor of “The Freedom Fry Award” and against “the Francophobe award” — it’s the “phobe” thing. It’s very in style lately, it basically consists in thinking that anyone who doesn’t think like one, the “phobe” in question, is obviously sick, and with a couple pills he’ll be just like us.

    I’m not defending the bashers here, but I doubt these people suffer from a phobia. I think they’re assholes, period.

  25. The poll has now closed. We didn’t get a clear majority choice but a relative majority for “The Freedom Fry Award”.

    • The Freedom Fry Award (48%, 32 Votes)
    • The Francophobe Award (32%, 21 Votes)
    • The Frenchies (8%, 5 Votes)
    • Freedy the Freedom Fry Award (6%, 4 Votes)
    • The Gallophobe Award (6%, 4 Votes)
  26. Concerning what Danny says (#3 &  #4) no, “freedom fry award” will not backfire, but “francophobe award” will, because the real die hard francophobes will be proud to get a “francophobe award”! They’ll say “So what, I AM a francophobe!”. Whereas no one wants to get a “freedom fry award”, and be reminded of how idiotic they are (for having come up with “freedom fries” in the first place).

    Sorry if my comment comes a little late.

  27. I would tend to agree Cyrano, it will not backfire if we give the award to a part-time French Basher, someone who thought he / she could get away with it and would rather not be reminded of their comment(s) –

    I will be putting the first nominations together shortly, but I might also have two nominations per category : (a) popular award (b) editorial award ?

  28. All good comments above. However, given that we now know that the Bush admin regularly fed  anti-French talking points to the right wing columnists and radio people, this Freedom Fries thing was a Bush concocation, and we should not use it, even in ridicule I feel. However, this is just my opinion, and I will go along with whatever NAME for the award that the webmaster chooses. I think the most important thing to consider is how the NAME will be perceived by the media, not by those of us here. Let’s see what unfolds….

    again, good discussion above, everyone!

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