Voodoo Gets Its Day in Court and Wins

The French prime minister better not be superstitious. Or else, he is going to have his hopes for economic recovery pinned down in an instant. And the French courts are not helping one bit.

(EPA photo)

Nicolas Sarkozy twice asked the French courts to ban the sales of a voodoo figurine (above) made of his image, and twice his efforts backfired, turning the dolls into a national sales phenomenon.

An appeals court not only declared the dolls rightful objects of free expression but also "the judges ordered that it be sold with a bright-red banner on the packaging entitled 'Judicial Injunction' and a warning that sticking needles into the doll affronts Sarkozy's dignity," the International Herald Tribune reports.

The doll's light-blue body, which comes with a set of 12 needles and a manual explaining how to put a curse on the president, also features some of Sarkozy's best-known quotes and gaffes: "Work more to earn more" reads one quote, a slogan from Sarkozy's presidential campaign. "Get lost, you poor jerk," reads another, a swipe Sarkozy took at a bystander at a farm fair who refused to shake his hand.

In keeping with the often meticulous nature of French officialdom, the ruling Friday was very specific. The distributor of the dolls, K&B Editions, was ordered to write the notice that will be distributed with the doll in black block-lettering and it must say exactly this: "It was ruled that the encouragement of the reader to poke the doll that comes with the needles in the kit, an activity whose subtext is physical harm, even if it is symbolic, constitutes an attack on the dignity of the person of Mr. Sarkozy."

The court also awarded the president a symbolic euro in damages and ordered K&B Editions to pay the equivalent of about $2,000 in legal costs.

But the court also stuck to the initial ruling by a lower court last month: "The demanded ban is disproportionate," the judges ruled, "in that it is a measure that would compromise freedom of expression." The earlier ruling had already argued that the case fell under what it dubbed "the right to humor."

And humor can be a very profitable enterprise. According to the doll manufacturer, K&B Editions, "The Sarkozy figurine went on sale on Oct. 9 and sold out by Oct. 28. Another 20,000 will be delivered to newsagents from mid-December, this time with the court-ordered label."

You may very well call it "voodoo economics."