PARIS
\nTop Gun or Terminator? French President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s sporting of aviator shades at Davos this week tickled the press and inspired viral memes online, while prompting a surge in visitors to the eyewear brand\u2019s website.
\nMacron, speaking at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, wore sunglasses on stage due to a broken blood vessel that has left him with a bloodshot eye since last week, according to the Elysee\u2019s chief physician.
\nWhile the French president stood up for European sovereignty and blasted \u201cunacceptable\u201d threats by his US counterpart Donald Trump to impose tariffs on countries opposed to his plans to seize Greenland, it was Macron\u2019s flashy blue sunglasses that grabbed much of the attention.
\n\u201cTop Gun or Terminator?,\u201d read a headline in Le Parisien daily, highlighting the viral commentary which ranged from memes photoshopping laser beams shooting from Macron\u2019s eyes to his face on the \u201cMiami Vice\u201d film poster.
\nOther images on social media showed Macron playing the rebel Maverick from the Top Gun franchise, while facing off to Trump.
\n\u201cThese sunglasses were unintentionally a very fitting visual vocabulary for the message he wanted to convey,\u201d said communications professor Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet at Paris\u2019s Sciences Po university.
\n\u201cIt gave a Hollywood-style dimension \u2014 cool and masculine at once \u2014 that answered Trump.\u201d
\nTrump mocked the look, stating: \u201cI watched him yesterday with those beautiful sunglasses. What the hell happened?\u201c
\n\u201cBut I watched him sort of be tough,\u201d Trump added, after Macron said France rejected \u201cbullies.\u201d
\nThe UK\u2019s Telegraph newspaper published the headline \u201cCan Macron\u2019s sunglasses save the West?\u201d in an analysis of the heated and divisive tone taken by largely male world leaders at the summit.
\n\u201cTestosterone is the primary currency in Davos this year, and the French president\u2019s aviators have placed him at the top of the pecking order,\u201d the Telegraph wrote.
\nThe hype surrounding Macron\u2019s look led to a surge in traffic to the French eyewear maker Henry Jullien\u2019s website, causing it to crash.
\n\u201cOur eShop website is experiencing an exceptional volume of visits and enquiries\u201d following the \u201csignificant visibility\u201d given to the sunglasses by Macron, said a notice on the brand\u2019s website.
\nIt added that it had launched a \u201ctemporary page\u201d featuring solely the \u2018Pacific\u2019 model worn by Macron, \u201cto ensure stable and secure access for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS Top Gun or Terminator? French President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s sporting of aviator shades at Davos this week tickled the press and inspired viral memes online, while prompting a surge in visitors to the eyewear brand\u2019s website. Macron, speaking at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday, wore sunglasses on stage due to a broken blood vessel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527546,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-527521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n