Merisant, Sans Canderel on N'A Pas L'air Fin

The headline for this artificial sweetener published in gay magazine Têtu shows a cartoonishly overweight man and translates to "Without Canderel, you don't look thin." ("On n'a pas l'air fin" can also mean "one doesn't look smart" or "one looks silly".)

In 2002 they launched this new campaign with a famous cartoon character illustrated by Kiraz, a well known designer, who published a lot of cartoons in famous French magazines like Paris Match. These ads were very successful and appreciated in the gay community, even if Canderel was not considered a gay-friendly company.

"For a long time, we tried to convince the client to be interested in gays, who take care of their body and their appearance," explained to CitéGay Valerie Lombard, responsible for the Canderel budget at Young & Rubicam. "It is known already that 30% of the consumers of sucrettes are men. And gays like the new packaging in the shape of a credit card."