Commercial sign law: businesses ask for mercy
Quebec published its requirements for commercial signs this week – explained here, including a video showing the possibilities – and businesses are asking for a break, saying a year to change all their signs is difficult. As this piece says, “On ne se contentera plus d’un petit « les cafés » devant un nom dans une langue étrangère beaucoup plus en évidence.” We should have something like this as of next year:
LE CAFÉ
SECOND CUP
LA QUINCAILLERIE
CANADIAN TIRE
That will be hilarious.
walkerp 09:19 on 2024-06-27 Permalink
I’m cautiously optimistic this will somewhat reduce brand pollution on our commercial streets.
Ephraim 10:18 on 2024-06-27 Permalink
@walkerp – I think it is going to get a LOT worse because of this. The Les cafés is 2x to 3x the size, under the requirements. So the store to get it’s name BIG is going to have to put up even bigger descriptors OR put up MORE signs that are in French.
Kate 10:24 on 2024-06-27 Permalink
It’s going to look like we’re all very slow or dyslexic children who couldn’t otherwise be aware what’s going on along our streets and malls.
MarcG 10:26 on 2024-06-27 Permalink
I’m hoping for more of a Socialist Utopia vibe
Uatu 10:37 on 2024-06-27 Permalink
Meh just put up a QR code and you can read it in wtf language you want
Mark 11:03 on 2024-06-27 Permalink
I know they are not the same departments and ministères, but to think that hundreds if not thousands of personnel hours have been spent on coming up with these proposed changes, while we are on the cusp of massive climate upheaval, a generational housing crisis and a broken health care system is maddening.
Not even considering that this will do absolutely nothing to improve the state of French, which is the goal right? I work for a literacy non-profit and the official French course system for newly arrived immigrants is in such a shambolic state that organizations on the ground are reaching out to us to help them clear the backlog of demands to help people. Some folks started a course with the official system, and then bam, everything stopped and they had no courses for 6 months, which works wonders for someone trying to learn a language. Dysfunctional isn’t even a strong enough term.
I used to think that these high profile OQLF measures would win the “regional” votes over, but the thing is, there has been a real spill over of immigrants to non-traditional regions and towns, and organizations are contacting us saying they don’t have any resources to help these folks.
The voter in Granby (chosen at random) who would have had his nationalist fever scratched by seeing La Quincaillerie Canadian Tire isn’t buying it. If you want to improve and retain French, do two things: improve the schools and help adults learn the language. But that takes time, and you know, elections are soon.
steph 11:05 on 2024-06-27 Permalink
I expect the visual pollution to only increase. It’s infantilizing that we need descriptors.
Kate 11:33 on 2024-06-27 Permalink
When I went to visit my sister in the Netherlands in 2010, I was for some reason routed via Detroit. (I didn’t book the ticket.) I spent a little time in the Detroit airport, which was a visual overload of brash commercial signage. So when I got to Schiphol around 5 a.m. it was almost comic to see very plain generic signs on the businesses there – mostly closed at that hour – and no glitz.
But we’re not doing that either.
Don’t underestimate the passive aggressive possibilities here. We’re going to see something that will rival the hacking off of the apostrophe‑s that disfigured commercial signage for years here after the passage of the first Charter of the French Language in 1977.
jeather 13:36 on 2024-06-27 Permalink
I can’t help but think the disastrous French class system for recent immigrants is deliberate.
CE 14:06 on 2024-06-27 Permalink
I wonder if many brands will just change their names to French versions à la PFK or Pharmaprix.
Kate 15:09 on 2024-06-27 Permalink
Except Pharmaprix isn’t a French word either. A fair number of commercial names are invented like that.
CE 16:06 on 2024-06-27 Permalink
It’s certainly more French than “Shoppers Drug Mart” but it’s a good point. Will a company name that is a word or words which are completely made up and exist in no language need these qualifiers? What if it’s a made up word that looks like an English word? What about languages other than English? If a business is named after the owner, is it only acceptable if it’s a French name? I see a lot of lawsuits and petty fights in the government’s future!
Honestly, if I owned a big company and was expanding into Quebec, I’d do what KFC did and make the name French. Give the people what they want, whatever is lost in brand recognition will be made up for in goodwill.
Ian 18:36 on 2024-06-27 Permalink
KFC is one of the best examples of internationalization. On the other hand, there is a reason many retail chains exist all throighout the US and Canada except Quebec.
We will lose some retail chains probably, but it’s a great time to be a commercial signage and installation company in Montreal, I bet.
CE 21:23 on 2024-06-28 Permalink
I’m having trouble thinking of too many international brands that exist in say, Ontario, but not here. I don’t think it’s the worst thing that some international brands stay away. All the more room for local brands to fill the void. I’d much rather have Simons than Nordstrom for example. Starbucks has always had trouble getting a foot in the door in Montreal and we have lots of excellent independent cafés and small local chains instead (it’s one of the first things out-of-towners remark to me).
I’ve been thinking of this law as I walk around and imagine how ridiculous it could get. Will Barfly on St-Laurent have to put a big “BAR” in front of its name? Ubisoft (a French company) is a compound of two English words (ubiquitous and soft), will they have to put something like “entreprise de développement, d’édition et de distribution de jeux vidéo” before their name? Even Montreal brands have been singled out in some of these articles like “Cool&Simple” (which could argue that it’s in French as “cool” is often used in French, the & symbol works in French, and “Simple” is as much a French word as an English one. Local brands like Copper Branch and Top Discount will have a more difficult time justifying their names. I feel like these requirements are going to be a complete shitstorm and have no idea how deep they will or can go to require compliance.
Ian 21:59 on 2024-06-28 Permalink
… but of course Renaud-Bray will be just fine 😉
Ephraim 22:07 on 2024-06-28 Permalink
@Ian – Names are exempt. So McDonald’s and Wendy’s are safe, but Burger King isn’t. If gas stations weren’t enough of an eye sore… wait till we have giant ESSENCE signs on top of all of them
Kate 13:40 on 2024-06-29 Permalink
Le Roi des Hambourgeois! Pourquoi pas?