France is a complex nation...(updated post, now with more underwear info.)

This just might have something to do with why I'm a French major. Sure, there's the literature. That also no doubt has something to do with it. But just take a look. Mmm.

But then there's another side to the country, unrelated to cheese and books, that confuses me. The anti-advertising movement, which is all the rage in Paris, pretty much makes no sense. A group behind the movement, "Résistance à L'Agression Publicitaire," offers this as an explanation:

"Dans un souci permanent d'humanisme et de démocratie, elle vise enfin la sensibilisation du public, notamment celle des plus jeunes qui doivent pouvoir acquérir l'esprit critique nécessaire à leur futur rôle de citoyens autonomes."

In other, English, words: In the name of humanism, democracy, and all that is sacred (err, secular; it IS France, after all), the public must be made aware of how advertising is preventing them, especially the nation's impressionable youth, from becoming autonomous citizens.

But how? Are the things that are being advertised on the Metro, from department stores to underwear to, um, more underwear, supposed to no longer exist? Will all goods be produced communally, or may capitalism continue, just without the aid of those flashy posters?

UPDATE--link via Andrew Sullivan: Apparently underwear ads are not just a problem in France. At least the Brits have a reason--the ads might be offensive if near mosques. Sullivan calls this "p.c. hell." Wonder what he calls the French movement to get rid of underwear ads in general...