The Hidden Persuader

Maurice Levy (Publicis): A Frenchmen in Advertising

Foie gras and fashion? Yes, the French can handle that. But advertising? Leave that to the British and Americans, masters of understatement and the brash riposte, with their ad powerhouses, like the Omnicom Group and the Interpublic Group of Companies in the United States and the WPP Group in Britain. Maurice Levy begs to differ. In recent years, Mr. Levy bought a string of agencies, including Britain's fabled Saatchi & Saatchi, that catapulted the French agency company Publicis Groupe into the forefront of the advertising world. Then last year he helped engineer a deal to bring together Publicis, the Bcom3 Group of the United States and Dentsu, the leading agency company in Japan, to form the world's fourth-largest ad company. Source: NY Times