Asterix de Gaul replaces Ronald McDonald as the franchise symbol in France. It's part of the "indigenization campaign" in order to sell more Big Macs not only to the French, but the Pakis, the Chinese -- everyone outside the cowboy American culture. You can also call it using the target market's own biases against them, or Cultural McDonaldization and the judo strategy of globalization:

Ironies abound, of course, since Asterix had been something of an anti-Mcdonald's icon, appropriated by anti-globalization protestors. Indigenizing" McDonald's has been a major component of adapting the brand to its global role — more of the company's earnings today come from abroad than from its U.S. outlets. As former McDonald's President James Cantalupo had said in 1991, the company's strategy was to make itself "as much part of the local culture as possible."

It's the protestors that take McDonald's to symbolize all that America stands for; the company's own marketers work to identify the brand with the tastes and cultural preferences of the target population. The general idea is to make the famously malcontented French youth (in their Levis and Nikes) feel comfortable stopping in for a Big Mac on their way home from an anti-American demonstration.

I wonder if we're going to have to do the same here. If they wanted to, protesters could have started years ago, right after the local McDo franchise took away the milkshakes. But the way people are here, it's more of us assimilating cheeseburgers and mcflurries in our daily diet than fighting to have a McPalabok on the menu. It's a dichotomy of multinationals in our economy: McDonald's vs. Jollibee; GMA Network vs. ABS-CBN; Coke vs. Pepsi (although Pop is proving to be a strong contender).

It's the way things are. One or the other. And off the top of my head, I cannot think of an icon to replace the leery old clown. (Personally, I have strong aversions towards grown men in make up and huge shoes) How about Jollibee? But nah, I've never been a big fan of fastfood.