Publicis Groupe marks upcoming 100 years with new campaign

Publicis Groupe is marking its upcoming 100th anniversary with a new film that reflects the agency's evolution from a small creative shop founded in Montmartre in 1926 to one of the world’s largest advertising holding companies.

The annual ‘Wishes’ tradition is being led this year by Publicis Conseil, the agency founded by Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet. The film combines live action with AI-generated production techniques drawn from the agency’s proprietary tools. The agency officials said the project traces the Groupe’s history through war, fire, economic crises, technological shifts and the pandemic, highlighting the resilience that has shaped its first century.

Arthur Sadoun, chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe, said, "2026 will be a very special year for us, as we end our first century. A century where we have turned a small hot shop from Montmartre into the industry’s largest holding company over the last two years. A century that has seen the Groupe rise from the ashes - sometimes literally - three times and reinvented itself many more. It is this spirit of resilience that has defined us for 100 years and that is captured in our Wishes: a lion never gives up.

He also added, “2026 will also be the year where we enter our second century, the beginning of which will undoubtedly be defined by the rise of AI. This film is a human, historical and technological odyssey that blends our best creative minds with our unmatched capabilities in AI production to embody our belief that the future of AI is our people."

About one-quarter of the film 'A lion never gives up' consists of live action footage, while the remaining scenes are produced using AI trained on photos, videos and documents from the agency’s archives.

The agency said AI prompt artists and archivists handled a large volume of visual material, sourcing and cataloguing about 4,500 images for 150 individual shots.

The agency has also released a documentary on its 100-year history featuring Elizabeth Badinter, Maurice Lévy and Sadoun.