Publicis has released its annual ‘Wishes’ film, featuring American rapper Snoop Dogg, to celebrate its positioning to become the world’s number one ad holding group.
The group’s choice to cast the global celebrity to make the announcement comes off the back of his virality at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Renamed ‘The Wishzels’, this special edition sees the rapper charmingly confused about what Publicis is.
“What’s Publicis holding? I don’t know,” Snoop Dogg says with a shrug in the video. He does however, proceed to say that “Americans, Brits and French have been competing to see which holding company is the top dog.”
Reuters reports that analysts expect Publicis to come in at €13.9 bn for the full year, according to Visible Alpha Consensus.
Its growth surpasses that of WPP, the long-time global ad leader, which is forecast to report revenue less pass-through costs of €13.7 bn according to a company-compiled consensus.
Taking the top spot would mark the first time a French ad-holding company would claim the top spot, a significant milestone in Publicis’ 98-year history. The rapper says smoothly, “This year, Publicis has overtaken them all. Les Numeros One.”
The film further captures the celebratory spirit with some playful banter between the two. Highlights include a Snoop Dogg-inspired Publicis logo redesign that Sadoun dons as custom merchandise. The logo redesign is currently the display picture for Publicis Groupe’s social media accounts.
The pair then showcase their ‘crip-walk’ skills to the rapper’s theme song ‘Who Am I (What’s My Name)?’
The final scene cuts to a cameo of Publicis Groupe’s Chairman of the Supervisory Board Maurice Lévy, holding his favourite Snoop Dogg record and showing us all how the ‘C-step’ is really done.
