Sixt Mocks French President’s Height in Advert

An advertisement from Sixt, the car hire firm, has mocked the 5ft, 5in height of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, causing quite a scandal. The posters urge customers to rent the Citroen C3 hatchback, a small vehicle, telling them to “Be like Madame Bruni (Sarkozy’s wife), take a small French model”, which includes a photo of the couple.

The height difference between the couple has been the subject of many discussions. Madame Bruni is often photographed wearing flats so that she looks shorter while standing beside President Nicolas Sarkozy, while he wears footwear to appear taller. He also stands on footstools, which people call a “Sarkozy step”, behind podiums during speeches.

This won’t be the first time that, if Sixt finds themselves in hot water over this, an ad campaign has poked fun at the presidential couple, as they have sued two different companies for using their images without getting permission. French clothing company Pardon was sued for using a nude image of Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy on a bag with a slogan that suggested the President should have bought some of their clothes for her. And in 2009, Ryanair was also sued for using a photo of the couple with a slogan suggesting if the first lady used the carrier, she could have her whole family join for her wedding. The budget carrier was fined £55,000.

Sixt president of operations in France Jean-Philippe Doyen has brushed off the controversial ads by saying that they are simply meant to be fun. He said that the car hire business needs some humor after recent turmoil with the recession.