McDonald's established a beachhead in France long ago, so I'm not exactly sure why this is news, except that August is a slow news month in France because everyone is on vacation: The handful of writers who are left to mind the store have apparently whipped themselves into a lather of indignation over the use of an Asterix cartoon to advertise McDonald's.

"After resisting the Romans, have the Americans finally scalped the invincible little Gaul?" thundered Le Figaro, according to the UK paper The Telegraph. Having eaten pizzas shaped like Smurfs and ice cream from a plastic Pingu head when I lived over there, I'm not sure what the fuss is about. The French aren't usually adverse to using licensed characters to sell crap, and this isn't even the first time Asterix has been used to plug the Golden Arches; he subbed for Ronald McDonald briefly in 2001. Nonetheless, a spokesman for Asterix's publisher, Albert René, had to rise to the Gauls' defense: "Asterix remains a rebel," he said. "He doesn't work for (McDonald's) but with (McDonald's). The Gauls 'come as they are', as the slogan says. We are not defenders of 'malbouffe' (bad food)". And, he pointed out, they declined to use Obelix in a Diet Coke ad because it did not "correspond to the values of the character."

Asterix co-creator Albert Uderzo OK'd the ad campaign, and his studio did the art.

(Via ICv2.)