In this article, Mike Steinberger of Slate gives a very funny account of how McDonald’s became so successful in France (Second biggest share of the company’s profit comes from the land of smelly cheeses and raw meat). Basically, the company managed to make the French believe that McDonald’s was French. Brilliant.

He recalls his visit to the annual Salon International de l’Agriculture in Paris. The Salon is the place where the farm and its animals come to the city and where farmers get to showcase their meat, cheese, and Frenchness to city folks. McDonald’s had a stand, too.

Large, colorful placards ringed the display, documenting the amount of French beef, poultry, and vegetables that McDonald’s used, detailing the nutritional value of the food it served, and describing the company’s eco-friendly practices. The words were accompanied by lots of pastoral imagery—cows, potatoes, sheaves of wheat. Children weren’t spared the charm offensive. At an activity table, a sign reading D’où vient ton McDo? (Where does your McDonald’s come from?) was adorned with more pictures of chickens and cows. Judging by the display, you would never have guessed that it belonged to an American fast-food chain. That, apparently, was the idea. Cooked down to its essence, the message from McDonald’s was that its food was French, it was good for you, and it was good for the environment.

Steinberger laments that the people around were totally buying it. I, on the other hand, find it really great. And here is the best part:

Indeed, the quarter-pounded conquest of France was not the result of some fiendish American plot to subvert French food culture. It was an inside job, and not merely in the sense that the French public was lovin’ it—the architects of McDonald’s strategy in France were French.

Mais bien sur! It takes a Frenchman to know the French’s love for themselves. Read more here.