French Anti-Counterfeiting Ad Campaign

"Buy a fake Cartier, get a genuine criminal record" — that's the warning one of France's new anticounterfeiting ads will send when it's displayed at airports this Summer.

In addition to Cartier, six other luxury brands (Chanel, Christian Dior, Lacoste, Longchamp, Louis Vuitton, and Van Cleef & Arpels) created visuals for the campaign, which is backed by the French luxury goods association Comitè Colbert and the French National Anti-Counterfeiting Committee, or CNAC. The ads will be installed at 18 of France's busiest airports to warn tourists of the dangers of buying replica luxury goods.

France counts possession of fake designer goods as a criminal offense, and owning a knockoff Dior bag can be punished by fines of up to €300,000 (just over $300,000 at current exchange) or a three-year prison sentence. Despite these harsh punishments, counterfeiting still costs French luxury houses $7.5 billion in lost revenue every year.

"Every time you buy a fake Lacoste, a fake Longchamp, a fake Chanel, you are shooting yourself in the foot on the values you hold dear," said Dior CEO Sidney Toledano.

Take a look at two of the ads here in the gallery.