Overconsumption or sobriety? When Black Friday divides at the top of the State

Never has Black Friday crystallized to this extent the headwinds blowing at the same time within the government. Through the media, two ministers engage in a communications battle, galvanized by waves of encouragement or protests. Christophe Béchu and the environmental associations opposed to the “hyperconsumption” of Black Friday, versus Bruno Le Maire, on the side of the merchant federations for whom this period of promotions is crucial. The bone of contention? Four advertising spots ordered from Ademe by the Ministry of Energy Transition and broadcast during Black Friday week. Produced by the Havas agency and published on YouTube on November 15, these short videos each feature a customer and a “reseller”. When one asks for purchasing advice, the other recommends that they abandon their acquisition project and instead turn to reconditioned, repair or rental. A “better for the planet’s resources and more economical” solution.

Christophe Béchu was the first to enter the media ring. At dawn, he defended Ademe's message in the columns of Le Monde, decrying the model of “unsustainable overconsumption of Black Friday” in favor of a “culture of sobriety, repair and reuse”. The Minister of Ecological Transition, champion of a “Green Friday”, outlined the contours of a “system of bonuses and penalties” to favor the most repairable electronic products. “Let’s all together transform Black Friday into a day of sustainable consumption,” trumpeted Christophe Béchu, almost sure of his victory.

This was without taking into account the striking force of Bruno Le Maire. “I find this campaign clumsy,” said the Minister of the Economy, guest of the FranceInfo morning show. “It’s clumsy with regard to physical businesses, which are struggling and which we particularly support in the city center,” insisted the tenant of Bercy, “even indirectly making fun of the sales profession is an indirect way of promoting indirect effect of dematerialized commerce on platforms, so I find that regrettable. Especially since “believing deeply in sobriety”, Bruno Le Maire takes a dim view of this consumer guilt and prefers incentive. A gentle manner rightly adopted by Agnès Pannier-Runacher last year during her campaign to save energy, as the Minister of the Economy recently asserted.

Forced to put his gloves back on after this snub, Christophe Béchu returned to the charge four hours later on FranceInter. “We are not opposing ecology to the economy,” replied the Minister of Ecological Transition, “I have validated this campaign, I have seen it and it will not be withdrawn.” However, the minister seeks to minimize the real scope of his campaign. It would only represent 0.2% of advertising airtime. “I admit to some awkwardness. We should have targeted online sales platforms rather than physical stores with this same message,” he admits. Without revealing whether or not Matignon had given the order to remove the advertisements.

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The shadow of censorship has indeed loomed since the trade federations stepped up to the plate, demanding the immediate withdrawal of Ademe's communication campaign. “It treats the commerce sector, and in particular that of fashion, in an inconsistent and unjustified manner,” the Commerce Alliance thundered in a press release on Thursday. “It discredits physical merchants and risks encouraging consumers to make their purchases online. online, away from the guilty gaze carried by this video. “What is the objective of this campaign,” asks this federation of ready-to-wear retailers, “to finish killing the fashion trade?” The same day, the Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CPME) also crucified these advertising spots, financed “with great public funds” which “under the guise of responsible consumption, advocate degrowth, advocating a renunciation of the act of purchase”. For the CPME, “such a campaign in the run-up to the Christmas holidays is a real slap in the face to traders who are suffering inflation head-on and are worried about economic activity which is showing signs of slowing down”.

Touched but not sunk, Christophe Béchu endures the reprimands and relies on choice support. The president of Horizon Edouard Philippe displayed this afternoon on X his “full agreement” with the minister’s platform. On the same social network, the MP and vice-president of the Renaissance group David Amiel supported Christophe Béchu and “his responsible model based on sustainability, reuse and affordable made in France”. In the wake of the boss of the Ecological Transition and on the occasion of Black Friday, ten associations led an action against fast fashion this Thursday: an artistic performance denouncing the abuses of mass consumption of clothing, all under the The aegis of a sentence pronounced by Bruno Le Maire at the Summer Universities of the Economy of Tomorrow 2023: “we must fight against the abuses of fast-fashion”.