World News
Issue date: 1/25/02 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
Ronald McDonald gets company
McDonald's enlists the help of beloved French comic-strip character Asterix the Gaul to help its slumping Parisian sales.
The recent drop in revenue is believed to be from recent mad cow disease scares in Europe and protests by anti-globalization groups against the American company.
In an attempt to appeal to the European market, Asterix will promote new sandwiches with a European flare, like the McGréce.
McDonald's is also trying to make its foreign restaurants more unique.
"The French like to think of themselves as the only true resistance against American imperialism," said Thomas Sotinel of the Paris daily Le Monde, as reported by CNN.com.
"So it's funny to see the most potent symbol of American economic power using Asterix as their marketing tool."
French fast food chains are not taking McDonald's advertising campaign sitting down. They are improving their products and services and starting ad campaigns of their own to keep customers.
U.S. uses phone to teach Pashto
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Zhang. That is the state of affairs in Afghanistan: War, as written in the Taliban's own Pashto language.
Now any Joe or Jill, or soldier preparing for a posting in Afghanistan or even Guantanamo Bay, can study Pashto by phone under a system created by a Miami professor.
Steven Donahue, a linguist and English language professor at Miami-Dade Community College, is offering free Pashto lessons over a voice-recognition phone line. Since the system's final toll-free version became available in mid-November, Donahue estimates, it has been used by several thousand callers nationwide, mostly from the military, Defense Department, or State Department.
Troops with the second Marine Expeditionary Force, serving in Afghanistan, already have his Pashto language system on CDs for their computer laptops, Donahue said.
"We have copied those tapes and sent them to the troops that are operating and preparing the detention facility in Guantanamo," said Southcom spokesman Steve Lucas. He added that some troops trained in Pashto are already on the scene.
Now Donahue is branching out to offer similar phone instruction in other Mideast languages such as Arabic, Urdu and Tajiki.
But Pashto should remain the most necessary of languages to the military, at least until Afghanistan finds peace. Or amniat.
McDonald's enlists the help of beloved French comic-strip character Asterix the Gaul to help its slumping Parisian sales.
The recent drop in revenue is believed to be from recent mad cow disease scares in Europe and protests by anti-globalization groups against the American company.
In an attempt to appeal to the European market, Asterix will promote new sandwiches with a European flare, like the McGréce.
McDonald's is also trying to make its foreign restaurants more unique.
"The French like to think of themselves as the only true resistance against American imperialism," said Thomas Sotinel of the Paris daily Le Monde, as reported by CNN.com.
"So it's funny to see the most potent symbol of American economic power using Asterix as their marketing tool."
French fast food chains are not taking McDonald's advertising campaign sitting down. They are improving their products and services and starting ad campaigns of their own to keep customers.
- David Fitzgerald
Assistant News Editor
Assistant News Editor
U.S. uses phone to teach Pashto
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Zhang. That is the state of affairs in Afghanistan: War, as written in the Taliban's own Pashto language.
Now any Joe or Jill, or soldier preparing for a posting in Afghanistan or even Guantanamo Bay, can study Pashto by phone under a system created by a Miami professor.
Steven Donahue, a linguist and English language professor at Miami-Dade Community College, is offering free Pashto lessons over a voice-recognition phone line. Since the system's final toll-free version became available in mid-November, Donahue estimates, it has been used by several thousand callers nationwide, mostly from the military, Defense Department, or State Department.
Troops with the second Marine Expeditionary Force, serving in Afghanistan, already have his Pashto language system on CDs for their computer laptops, Donahue said.
"We have copied those tapes and sent them to the troops that are operating and preparing the detention facility in Guantanamo," said Southcom spokesman Steve Lucas. He added that some troops trained in Pashto are already on the scene.
Now Donahue is branching out to offer similar phone instruction in other Mideast languages such as Arabic, Urdu and Tajiki.
But Pashto should remain the most necessary of languages to the military, at least until Afghanistan finds peace. Or amniat.
- South Florida Sun-Sentinel