• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, December 20, 2018

Well, now I feel like the holiday-wishes-from-the-industry thing is complete. 

Publicis Groupe has finally weighed in and it's a bit delayed, I think, from most years -- but just in the nick of time. 

And I guess we should have seen this coming. The star of this year’s video is not, as you might expect, CEO Arthur Sadoun or former CEO Maurice Levy. Levy did it for years and shared billing with Sadoun last year. 

No no, the star of this year’s Holiday Greetings Video is none other than….wait for it…Marcel! 

You know, the Groupe’s internal AI platform that caused such a stir last year. That's when Publicis announced with great fanfare that it was building it and forgoing the expense of all awards shows (and other promotional-oriented efforts) for a year to pay for it. 

Employees seemed a tad bitter about the "Cannes thing" in the video. I gave a little away in the headline, but check out the clip here. It’s pretty darn funny. 

Happy Holidays Marcel. Illegitimi non carborundum.