Translation of the article in French by Jacques Rouchaud
Turn on the radio, the television, your phone. Everywhere, the same advertising. You asked for nothing, and you are the ones paying.
This outrageous advertising costs a great deal, and only the very big can afford it. Let us look at the facts.
Billions to tell us what to buy
In 2025, advertisers spent 35.2 billion euros on their communication in France. That is about 96 million euros a day, and about 510 euros per inhabitant, babies included.
Worldwide, advertising revenue reached about 1,140 billion dollars in 2025. More than 3 billion a day.
This money does not fall from the sky. Companies count it in their costs, and their costs end up in their prices. At the checkout, you pay for the product, and you also pay for the advertising that chased you all the way home.
The big ones fill the airwaves, the small ones have their shop window
France’s biggest advertiser in 2025 is a supermarket group: E.Leclerc. In 2024, it invested 641 million euros, according to the ranking published at the time by Kantar Media and Stratégies.
The small fashion shop does the same work. It sells, it advises, it holds on. And what does it have? Its shop window. The craftsman has his van. The farmer has his field. The sailor has his boat. None of them can pay for a spot at 8 p.m.
In everyday life, nobody introduces himself to his neighbour with a slogan. Good bread does not need a jingle.
Those who produce get the smallest share
Out of 100 euros spent on feeding ourselves, agriculture creates only 6.40 euros of value, according to the French Observatory on the Formation of Prices and Margins, for the year 2021. Commerce, across all links in the chain and including small shopkeepers, creates 18.80 euros. And agriculture’s share tends to shrink over the years.
The big middlemen do not grow a single carrot, and they pay fortunes to tell you where to buy it. The one who grew it is never heard.
Where does this money go?
Out of 12.4 billion euros of online advertising in France in 2025, more than 8 euros in 10 go to non-European groups. That is about 10 billion euros. Worldwide, Meta and Google alone are expected to take in 483 billion dollars of digital advertising in 2026.
And the media that live on advertising, how can they freely criticise those who fill their coffers?
These billions sow no field. They repair no roof. They heal nobody. They serve to rake in more.
Let us do our job
Let us stop this outrageous advertising. Let this money be used to raise wages, to pay farmers, sailors and producers better, and to keep alive the craftsmen and shopkeepers who work near us.
We do not need to be told what to buy. We need to be able to buy.
Demosciocracy proposes that the people decide by referendum. A question like this one belongs to them: should these billions go to advertising, or to those who work?
Liberty — Equality — Truth.
Thank you for your comments
👉 demosciocracy.com
✉️ jacques.rouchaud@me.com
Factual references
- BUMP 2025 (France Pub, IREP, Kantar Media) – Communication spending and advertising revenue.
- Observatoire de l’e-pub (SRI, UDECAM) – Online advertising in France, 2025.
- Kantar Media and Stratégies – Top advertisers 2024 and 2025.
- Observatory on the Formation of Prices and Margins of Food Products – 2026 report, 2021 data.
- WPP Media – This Year Next Year, December 2025.
- eMarketer – 2026 digital advertising forecasts.
🌐 العربية · Русский · Українська · Deutsch · Español · Português · English · Français
Mercidevoscommentaires