“Another stereotype that equates Colombians with drugs”: in Toulouse, the lawyers’ advertising campaign is controversial

On the back of Tisséo buses, under bus shelters or even on billboards in the city: for a month, lawyers from the Toulouse bar have been proclaiming their existence in large format. To highlight their profession, they focused on four messages by “playing on the cultural codes of the moment”: “You don’t need to be from the rock legend’s family to call on a lawyer”; “No need to be the head of an influence agency to call on a lawyer”; “No need to have evaded the carbon tax to call on a lawyer” or “No need to be the head of a Colombian cartel to call on a lawyer”.

?Starting this Monday, September 9, the lawyers of the Toulouse Bar are appearing throughout the city through a large-scale advertising campaign!

Playing on the cultural codes of the moment, it will be broadcast on the city’s buses, bus shelters and billboards? pic.twitter.com/3hEgMFIF4c

— Toulouse Bar (@BarreauToulouse)

However, this last message is not getting through to the Colombian community in Toulouse who felt hurt by their country’s association with drug cartels. “It’s another stereotype that equates Colombians with drugs, with cocaine, it hurts us and it’s not funny,” says Angie Reyes, Colombian, member of Latino Graff, Guayabo Colectivo and Association Locombia. These cultural associations and others such as Alliance Latine or Fréquences Latines express their deep dissatisfaction in a letter of complaint addressed to the Toulouse Bar, the jurisdictional order of lawyers. A petition has just been launched on change.org for the withdrawal of the campaign.

“Colombians are still targeted by drug-related remarks”

“The tone may be intended to be humorous but it seems unacceptable and inappropriate to us. This message evokes in a very light way an issue that has seriously affected our community for decades. Colombia is undergoing an armed conflict largely generated by production, marketing and global consumption of drugs This is an international problem and it is unfair and wrong that our country is the only one to be associated with it”, write the members and friends of the Colombian community of Toulouse who recall that. the associations to which they belong organize numerous events to promote the cultural and historical richness of their country while fighting against the stereotypes that are still present. “Colombians are always targeted by remarks related to drugs, we have been trying to change this image for years,” adds Angie Reyes.

The Bar evokes a humorous tone

For Me Caroline Marty-Daudibertières, president of the Toulouse Bar Association, “there was never any question of hurting anyone in this campaign, the first of the Toulouse bar. Our intention is to remind citizens and to companies that lawyers are there on a daily basis to support and defend them. We have chosen a humorous tone, with references known to all but without any desire to discriminate or even insult the Colombian community.

In its letter, the Colombian community of Toulouse requests the withdrawal of the poster campaign and demands a public apology. “It is a type of racist humor, which ignores the history and sensitivity of Colombian society. We cannot let this pass, especially from the Bar Association, an institution supposed to protect the rights of individuals “, concludes Caroline Mahecha Quintero, director and founding dancer of the Anacaona company, Colombian political scientist, doctoral student at Toulouse 2-Jean Jaurès University.