How about the word verb "to google" ? Shouldn't this be forbidden too, according to the french reasoning? Or do they not use it at all?
That was exactly what I came here to write. I understand the spirit of this law, that using facebook and twitter is using a public good for advertising outside of the context of an ad. But some of these brands have a tendency to become words in there own right, and like kleenex or google, the word becomes synonymous with the brands' function. I believe Webster has included "Google" as a verb now. It'd be interesting…
I don't think there a is a verb in French. We're stuck to 'search on google'('chercher sur Google'), mostly (I think) because the verb wouldn't sound nice.
I'm not sure I've ever heard it in the media, but I never really paid attention in the first place.
What struck me, though, is that people, in the news, or in other ads (banks, etc) tend to say "We have a phone application" when they only provide an iphone app. Might be somehow related.