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Mais ça c'était avant
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About
Mais ça, c'était avant is a catchphrase used by Krys, a chain of French opticians and eyeglasses retailers, as part of its advertising campaign. This sentence became widely used on the Internet as well as in other media, and inspired many parodies of the original campaign.
Origin
In 2009, Krys launched an advertising campaign on TV, in order to change its brand image. This campaign, created by the advertising company Agence H, is based on the sentence: Avant, j'avais/j'étais X – Mais ça c'était avant (which could be translated as: I used to have/be X – But that was before). It shows random people, who used to have a complex about some of their physical features, but who forget about their lack of self-confidence once they wear glasses. This logic is completed by a second catchphrase: Krys – Vous allez vous aimer (Krys – You are going to like yourself).
In late 2010, the TV campaign was followed by a printed campaign, and, in 2011, by a similar TV and print campaign, featuring celebrities.
Spread
A few occurences of parody pictures and YouTube videos using the same logic as the ad campaign appeared on the Internet between 2010 and 2012[1][2][10].
However, most parodies of the Krys ads appeared starting from mid-winter 2012. The campaign for the presidential election in France encouraged the creation of more parodies, mocking the candidates[12], and even anticipating Nicolas Sarkozy's defeat ("I used to be the president – But that was before")[3][11].
The same year, two single-purpose blogs, dedicated to Krys parodies, went online. The first one, hosted on Tumblr and named "Avant j'étais chez Krys" (I used to be a Krys customer), was created on January 27th, 2012, and contains, as of January 2015, 18 parodies[4]. The second one, named "Mais Ça C'était Avant", was created in February 2012 on the Over-Blog platform; it contains, as of January 2015, 57 parodies[5].
Although this meme gained some popularity because of politics-based mockery, it soon extended to other topics, from a horse meat scandal[13] to religious topics[14].
Various video parodies uploaded to YouTube exist, as well as Facebook pages which titles mock the ad campaign's catchphrase[7][8]. On French TV channel Canal+, the satiric puppet show Les Guignols de l'Info created several parodies of the Krys commercials, targeting the president François Hollande[9], the French government, or Swedish soccer player Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Search Interest
External references
[1] pub lunettes Wamiz December 17, 2011
[2] Avant mon RAL filait mais ça c'était avant January 5, 2012
[4] avantjetaischezkrys.tumblr.com
[5] maiscacetaitavant.over-blog.fr
[6] C'ÉTAIT AVANT on Jerry Tabary's Youtube channel
[7] Avant j'étais président, mais ça c'était avant on Facebook
[8] Avant j'étais blonde. Mais ça, c'était avant on Facebook
[9] La Crise, vous n'allez pas aimer (Les Guignols de l'Info) on YouTube
[10] Avant j'étais arabe on YouTube
[11] L'élection présidentielle profite à Krys on Blog Social Reflex
[12] La pub Krys détournée avec les candidats à l'élection présidentielle on jadorelespotins.com
[13] Avant j'étais un bœuf, mais ça c'était avant on Facebook
[14] L'autre et le mème on Edmond Prochain's blog
