A poster for the upcoming biopic ‘Coco Avant Chanel’ has caused controversy in France which has lead it to being banned.

The poster features Audrey Tautou holding a lit cigarette which has been deemed to be “unhealthy and inappropriate by Paris’ bus and train advertising giant Métrobus. The transportation authority acted in order to abide by France’s strict laws prohibiting the depiction of smoking in advertising.

A spokesman for Warner France said “For us, the poster shows Coco Chanel smoking in a natural pose that translates her strong personality and her modernity”.

Coco herself is famous for smoking in excess of 50-cigarette-per-day so it is easy to see why the producers would say this. Also in favour of the original poster is an unlikely ally, that the man behind the country’s stringent anti-tobacco rule, former Health Minister Claude Evin,who has spoken out against the poster prohibition.

In place of the offending image, producers have swapped out a more anodyne, lung-friendly shot of Tautou, which critics have not been shy in deriding.

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