With its 100th anniversary just around the corner in 2026, Publicis Groupe today issued its annual holiday wishes video that celebrates the founder, Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, the company he created and its accomplishments over its first century. 

The film, “A Lion Never Gives Up,"blends live action and GenAI and was created by Publicis Conseil, the agency built by Bleustein-Blanchet, beginning in 1926. 

The film frames the agency’s history as a story of resilience, reinvention, and innovation. 

The opening scene is set in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1942 at a posh night spot where the legendary singer Edith Pilaf—an AI version of her, that is—is on stage before an audience of well-heeled French civilians and Nazi officers. (Bleustein-Blanchet is credited with discovering Pilaf and promoting her career via his radio station Radio Cite.) 

“Let me tell you a story of resistance and grit,” Pilaf tells her audience, a nod to Bleustein-Blanchet's days as a fighter in the French Resistance during the war. His agency has already been seized by the Nazi’s. “Let me tell you the story of a Lion.” 

In a bit of reverse anthropomorphism, Bleustein-Blanchet is portrayed as a Gen AI created lion throughout the film and is seen snarling at Nazis, flying a plane during the war and being berated by his father for focusing on advertising as a career. “Nothing but air and wind!” his father exclaims at one point. 

But despite the skepticism and doubt, he persists, rebuilding the business after the war and again later after a fire destroys its offices. 

The film references the company’s expansion with acquisitions including Saatchi & Saatchi and Leo Burnett (many more were to follow including Epsilon and Sapient) and its embrace of new technologies from radio to AI, how it dealt with the pandemic, its efforts to battle the stigma of cancer at work and its ascension (however briefly) as the top holding company in the industry.  

The film concludes with a photo of the founder and an off-camera Pilaf stating that the moral of the story is that “whatever happens, the lion never gives up.” 

Separately, the company has released a long-form documentary presenting a more in-depth look at the company’s history that features CEO Arthur Sadoun, Board chairman Maurice Levy and long-time company executive (and Bleustein-Blanchet's daughter) Elisabeth Badinter.