K ärcher (to clean; French political v erb for ghetto cleaning)

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_http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/20/world/europe/20karcher.html_ 
(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/20/world/europe/20karcher.html) 
Kärcher Reminds French: We Clean Dirt, Not Ghettos  
 
By ARIANE BERNARD
Published: April 20, 2007

 
PARIS, April 19 — There is one French company that is tired of free  
publicity.  
It is Kärcher, which makes high-pressure washers used to clean dirt, graffiti 
 and wear from building façades. Its products cleaned Mount Rushmore. 
But “to Kärcher” has become a French political verb with explosive content.  
The leading presidential candidate, _Nicolas Sarkozy_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/nicolas_sarkozy/index.html?inline=nyt-pe
r) , coined the term two years ago when he  went to the immigrant suburb of 
La Courneuve after a boy was killed by a stray  bullet, and said he would clean 
out troublemakers there “with a Kärcher.” Mr.  Sarkozy’s opponent on the 
far-right, _Jean-Marie Le Pen_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/jeanmarie_le_pen/index.html?inline=nyt-per) , responded during a 
stop in the  suburb of Argenteuil last week. “If some want to Kärcher-ize you, 
to exclude  you, we want to help you get out of these ghettos,” he told people 
there. 
All this is too much for Kärcher _France_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/france/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) , a 
subsidiary of a 70-year-old family-owned  German company, which does not want 
to become a metaphor for quelling gangs in  suburbs populated by immigrants of 
African origin. “We wanted to remind people  that we’re a family company, 
with well-entrenched values, that didn’t match  these comments,” said Patrice 
Anderouard, the spokesman for Kärcher France. 
The company has sent letters to all 12 presidential candidates and other  
politicians, asking them not to use the brand name. It has also run ads in  
newspapers stating that the company “cannot recognize itself in the recent words  
and confusion to which its name has been  associated.”



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