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America on The Couch.(cultural anthropologist and marketing guru Clotaire Rapaille shares insights about his adopted country)(Interview)(Biography)
Byline: Eric Pape
Do Americans have anything to learn about themselves from a French guy? It may seem a dubious proposition. But then again, cultural anthropologist and marketing guru Clotaire Rapaille is hardly your average Frenchman. As a child during World War II, he watched German occupiers flee his tiny village ahead of the American advance. When the Americans arrived, a GI popped out of a tank and offered him a chocolate bar and a ride. After that, Rapaille had little doubt what he wanted to be when he grew up--an American.
He's since converted that fascination into a lucrative business decoding the unconscious thoughts hidden behind words and expressions, primarily for advertisers. After moving to the United States in 1983, he's worked for 50 of the 100 biggest American companies cited by Fortune magazine, including Ford and AT T. Even U.S. presidential candidates have sought his counsel on how to appeal to the American public. The 62-year-old naturalized American citizen and former French Embassy cultural attache (in Nicaragua) shared his insights about his adopted country with NEWSWEEK's Eric Pape. Excerpts:
PAPE: What exactly do you do?
RAPAILLE: I ask, "Why do people do what they do?" Sometimes our behavior doesn't make sense. Why do we need a Hummer or a four-wheel drive just to go shopping? People buy off-road vehicles even though 97 percent of them never go off-road. My work is like psychoanalyzing a culture.
In French the sun, le soleil , is masculine. Louis XIV used it as a male symbol. In German, it is feminine. Germans will tell you: "Of course it is female, she brings warmth, she makes things grow." If you sell shampoo in Europe and you want to use the sun to do it, you need to know that it doesn't mean the same thing in France and Germany.
What do Americans need to understand about themselves?
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Source: HighBeam Research, America on The Couch.(cultural anthropologist and marketing guru...