French labor protests are about to get a whole lot louder

It seems those noisy buzzing plastic trumpets (known as vuvuzelas) that are being blown incessantly at the World Cup have attracted the attention of French union workers looking for a way to make this week’s planned protests against government austerity measures more boisterous. According to Reuters, the chief executive of France’s exclusive importer of vuvuzelas has been flooded with thousands of orders in recent days, “many from unionists requesting speedy delivery.”

On the one hand this could be a great idea, incorporating what’s clearly become a new way for a group of people to completely dominate an event. On the other hand, there is evidence that this plastic noise trinket can cause hearing damage, which is not a good way for any activist to try and make a point. As always, we’ll let the French be our test market when it comes to protesting, since they love it so much.