Reflecting on Publicis Conseil’s long history, CEO Arthur Sadoun said in a statement that “it took almost 100 years and over 820 kilometers for a hotshop founded in Montmartre by Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet to make its way to the Palais des Festivals to receive this incredibly special honor.”
He was not exaggerating. The son of a furniture salesman, a 20-year-old Bleustein-Blanchet opened his shop in 1926. At a time when advertising’s reputation was dodgy at best, he pledged to elevate the field to something ethical and respectable. The firm pioneered tools and approaches that are standards today, including head-turning slogans, brand sponsorships and campaigns based on consumer research. “To produce without information,” Bleustein-Blanchet once observed, “is like doing half the job.”