Oise Hebdo guilty of fake news! Here is the proof. We beat our guilt. These are not vines on the Vico ad, as we wrote, but potatoes!
Indeed, in an article from November 29, 2024, Oise Hebdo took the liberty of teasing the Vico company for advertising that was a little too idyllic. In this reconstructed image, the town of Vic-sur-Aisne appeared surrounded by cultures. They were mistaken for vines when they were actually potato plants. It’s nerd.
A hundred-potato mistake
Oise Hebdo wrote:
“Welcome to Vic-sur-Aisne in Picardy. Finally, at Vico! Because here, we love chips more than anything in the world…” Since the beginning of November, we can see an advert for Vico chips, manufactured in a factory in Vic-sur-Aisne.
The opening image is supposed to show the bucolic side of this town of 1,600 inhabitants, on the edge of the Oise. This is the view you would have from the surrounding fields. An imaginary view, of course, since it is advertising and must be made to dream.
But all the same, vines leading to buildings reminiscent of the southwest! Maybe it’s too much. In Soissonnais the first vines, which we are trying to revive after decades of dormancy, can be found near Acy, twenty kilometers from here, in the direction of Reims.
To make the picture complete, they could have added the Eiffel Tower, La Baule beach and Mont Blanc. To truly be 100% Picard…”
Exemplary sentence
But we were wrong. They were indeed potatoes and not vines.
As responsible for the newspaper, I apologize to Vico, to Vic-sur-Aisne and to our millions of readers who have never seen a single error slip into our columns…
On the other hand, the journalist, author of the article, is condemned to buy his weight in Vico chips and offer them to his comrades at the newspaper. We have the Monster Munch, the Curly, the lentil chips, the Tutti Frutti Apérifruits, the Vico Cashew Nuts, the Vico Chips Street Food Spicy BBQ Made in France, the Natur’&Bon Amandes, the extra crunchy roast chicken chips, country ham, Spicy Curry, Provence herbs, Tzatziki, Sweet Barbecue Donuts, creamy Curly peanut butter, Vico Pistachios, blends of noble nuts, and so on and so forth and the best. There are over 57 varieties!
He must pay for his unforgivable crime!
Good-natured, however, the journalist added in the article of November 29, 2024:
Vico chips are almost 70 years old
In this image, which can be compared to a superposition of decorations, there are still two Vicois buildings. Let us recognize this effort. We can see, on the right, the keep of Vic. And on the left, the facade of the town hall. The brand will celebrate its 70th anniversary. In 1955 in Vic-sur-Aisne, the Vico agricultural cooperative was created “in the heart of one of the largest potato production regions”, it is written on the official website. Farmers then specialize in sorting, packaging and selling 5 kg net potatoes.
Around ten years later, Vico launched into the industrial processing of potatoes. Which truly marks the beginnings of Chips Vico and the construction of the Vic-sur-Aisne factory.
In 1998, Vico joined the Intersnack group, then number 2 in savory snacks in Europe.
Pity the journalist
Allow me, O great court of readers, to present here the defense of the journalist, whose name will not be said to be Guillaume Grasset. Oooooh, am I stupid, I missed that.
Indeed, readers, what do you see in this image in front of the stylized village of Vic-sur-Aisne? Don’t you see neat rows of green crops? Well, where did you see that the potato plants were placed so far apart? Eh ? I ask you.
Never, ever will a farmer plant his potato seedlings so far apart from each other. The potato plants are much closer together, actually. They are much less spaced apart.
Hence, obviously, the risk of error. From a distance, it looks like vines. And certainly not potatoes.
But that’s not all. Where did the designer see that there were only tiled roofs in Vic-sur-Aisne? There are a few houses with tiled roofs in Vic but in a very large minority. Most of the roofs are covered with gray slates.
And these houses, covered with orange tiles, obviously reminded us of the south of France.
So, in conclusion, O great court of readers, I ask for indulgence for the journalist, and, in an infinitely subsidiary way, if you really wanted to enter into the process of sentencing, I urge you to reduce his sentence to the purchase of ‘a dozen Vico products.
Yum!
