diff --git a/Lib/shutil.py b/Lib/shutil.py
index d2e2dc52fc9..7789cec2fb4 100644
--- a/Lib/shutil.py
+++ b/Lib/shutil.py
@@ -398,7 +398,7 @@ def _make_tarball(base_name, base_dir, compress="gzip", verbose=0, dry_run=0,
 
     if not os.path.exists(archive_dir):
         if logger is not None:
-            logger.info("creating %s" % archive_dir)
+            logger.info("creating %s", archive_dir)
         if not dry_run:
             os.makedirs(archive_dir)