In the last couple of years, the intercultural has become a key concept in the area of foreign language didactics in China. Learning a language does not mean just having some linguistic competence but means also mastering appropriate intercultural behaviours. This is all the more true with advanced learners of French as they will need to communicate effectively in professional situations. Can the introduction of authentic documents serve as an effective way to introduce an intercultural approach? Is it possible to use authentic documents right from the early stages of language learning? These are some of the questions we will try to answer in this article, based on the experience of using television advertising in a first year university French course.