Arthur Sadoun and Maurice Lévy star in classic movie scenes in Publicis' hilarious holiday video

Publicis Groupe's "Wishes" holiday video reaches new heights in the humor stakes this year, with CEO and Chairman Arthur Sadoun and his predecessor Maurice Lévy hilariously inserted into scenes from classic movies and TV. The film, an annual tradition for employees giving the holding company heavyweights an opportunity to show off their more light-hearted side, sees them appear in scenes from "Titanic," "ET ," "The Shining," "The Sound of Music" and more, all in the name of promoting the Groupe's new "Work your World" initiative. See Ad Age's 2021 Marketers of the Year here. The video starts out with Sadoun and Lévy discussing their options with the policy, introduced earlier this month, which allows employees to work anywhere in the world for six weeks annually, with a choice of more than 100 countries where the company has offices. First Lévy suggests New York; we see him dancing as The Joker on the famous steps from the movie, and then the pair of them grabbed by "King Kong" and taken up the Empire State Building. They then imagine the various destinations they could pick: a cruise trip? The mountains? A ski lodge? Korea? L.A.? All that leads to scenes almost guaranteed to make you laugh out loud (Ad Age staffers certainly did.) You can take a pick of your favorites; from the pair recreating Jack and Rose's iconic ship-front embrace in "Titanic," to Lévy as the creepy twins in "The Shining." Or there's Sadoun as "ET" on the front of Elliott-Lévy's bike, singing "The Hills are Alive" as "Maria" in "The Sound of Music" or channeling John Travolta in "Pulp Fiction" (with a frankly quite uncanny resemblance). The pair also pop up hitting the highway in biker mode in "Easy Rider," running from dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park" and as drag artists in "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert." But it's not just movies; in a very 2021 reference, they are also track-suited up as two key participants in "Squid Game," with Sadoun quipping "I'm tired of my workplace ... but I'm not tired of my life!" The video was created by Publicis' New York-based agency Le Truc, and produced by its Prodigious Group production arm. We're told the production team used Deep Fake technology to make some of the film scenes true to life, including "The Shining" and "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert." As well as highlighting its new talent retention policy for employees, the video provides a much-needed dose of comedy after another rollercoaster pandemic year. “This is traditionally the time of the year for looking back and reflecting on the past," said Sadoun in a statement. "But after another challenging 12 months for our people, we wanted to look forward with them, offer a fresh perspective, and hopefully make them smile. Our 2022 Wishes are an invitation not just to ‘work your world’ but to hopefully create the kind of incredible memories many of us have missed out on over the past two years.” See Ad Age's 2021 Marketers of the Year here.

Arthur Sadoun and Maurice Lévy star in classic movie scenes in Publicis' hilarious holiday video

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