PARIS, April 19 — Here is one company that is tired of free publicity.
Karcher makes high-pressure washers that are used to clean away dirt, mildew and graffiti from large surfaces like building walls. Its machines were used to clean the huge stone sculptures of Mount Rushmore.
But the company’s brand name is also becoming a French political verb, to Karcher. And the context is explosive.
The leading candidate in France’s presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy, coined the term two years ago in the largely immigrant-populated suburb of La Courneuve outside Paris after a boy was killed there by a stray bullet, and said he would clean undesirable people out of the area “with a Karcher.”
The image caught on as a shorthand for driving away immigrants with tough tactics, a policy that resonates with some French voters and appalls others, sometimes at surprising points on the political spectrum. Last week, Mr. Sarkozy’s opponent on the far right, Jean-Marie Le Pen, visited Argenteuil, another suburb with many immigrants, and told residents, “If some want to Karcherize you, to exclude you, we want to help you get out of these ghettos.”
All this is too much for Karcher France, a subsidiary of a 70-year-old family-owned German company, which does not want its brand name to become shorthand for quelling gangs in suburbs populated by African immigrants.
“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 Karcher France.
The company has sent letters to all 12 presidential candidates and other politicians, asking them not to use its name. It has also run ads in newspapers stating that Karcher “cannot recognize itself in the recent words and confusion to which its name has been associated.”
The office of Mr. Sarkozy said it had no comment on the company’s statements. The first round of presidential balloting will be held Sunday.
The company’s image may be hurting, but its sales do not seem to be. Worldwide revenue rose 13 percent last year, including increases in its home market, Mr. Anderouard said.
“Our customers can put things into perspective,” Mr. Anderouard said. “But what interested us here was to speak up about our values, and to remove our products from this political sphere.”
The company said it hesitated to speak up earlier, especially during the three weeks of unrest that swept many immigrant neighborhoods late in 2005, out of fear that it would do more harm than good.
