In solidarity with Ukraine, which has been attacked by Russia and its leader Vladimir Poutine since the beginning of the week, some restaurants in Quebec are making a symbolic and sympathetic gesture: they are removing the word poutine from their menu!
It was the Drummondville restaurant Le Roy Jucep that got the ball rolling. He announced it on his Facebook page. You now have to order a Frite Fromage Sauce!
But imagine that Internet users, those famous trolls who flood the web more and more, reacted strongly to this change of name. Probably from their parents' basement, they flooded the company's voicemail with hateful messages and threats.
So much so that the restaurant owner removed the original publication from his social networks.
Others also believe that this strategy is purely marketing and very little political.
The leaders of Roy Jucep confirm that it is not at all a marketing operation since they no longer need to do so, having been well established in their city for decades.
It should also be remembered that the vast majority of American restaurants, around 2003, had stopped using the word “French Fries” on their menu. They had instead replaced it with "Freedom Fries" when France refused to embark on the Iraqi invasion.
Probably because social networks were non-existent at the time, very few Americans had cried foul as is the case now!
In short, this completely harmless announcement from a restaurant is well worth talking about, even if it is not what will change the mind of the other Poutine.
Is it rather the end of orders for Russian products in SAQs that will make him change his mind?