• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, December 16, 2014

The Publicis Groupe Chairman-CEO turns prop in a new interactive video commemorating the holiday season. The YouTube video, part of this year’s version of an annual “Very Good Wishes” greeting tradition Publicis began in 2008 is intended to be a fun and fanciful way of conveying good tidings and promoting charitable giving this year.

The video and greeting are part of a pro bono effort promoting the Make-A-Wish foundation, which grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions.

It is also a mass media breakthrough, employing technology enabling YouTube video viewers to utilize their mobile device as a “joystick” to interact with a carnival-like claw swinging around Levy’s desk to grab items, including stuffed animals. Just make sure you avoid some of his personal possessions, especially his “beloved” candy jar.

Publicis touts the greeting as the “first mobile-controlled corporate speech on YouTube,” and Levy does a little sucking up to clients, while dodging the claw and swiping windblown corporate memos from his face.

Mainly, it’s just a bit of holiday season slapstick for an industry that sometimes takes itself a little too seriously.