Publicis Groupe did not lobby on its own behalf in 2022. Publicis has the intangible and historical principle of refusing to work for partisan campaigns (political parties, cults or ideological organizations). The Company does not financially or otherwise support such organizations.
The use of artificial intelligence, or algorithms based on deep learning (also called machine learning), is already integrated into the Groupe’s business lines, with interesting and successful advances in Media activities, in data with Epsilon and in digital transformation with Publicis Sapient. This makes it possible to meet very large-scale customization needs.
Over the last few years, the Groupe’s Responsible Marketing policy has defined five key principles to be respected:
The Groupe is active in professional organizations in all countries and its commitment is always publicly identifiable on the sites of these organizations: for example, the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and its representations in several countries, as well as in the United States, with the 4As (American Association for Advertising Agencies), AAF (American Advertising Federation); in France within the AACC (Association of Communication Consulting Agencies) or UDECAM (Union of Consulting and Media Purchasing Companies). Excluding the United States, an example is the United Kingdom, where the Groupe’s participation in the sectoral initiative Actions not words in the fight against racism and inequalities, and is a founding member of Ad Net Zero in favor of reducing carbon emissions. In France, we should also mention the Groupe’s active participation in the General Communications Meetings and the following projects promoting the ecological and social transition. This work has made it possible to put in place tools and indicators to drive the sector forward.
With regard to vulnerable audiences: the Groupe defends and promotes the rules set out in the guide Marketing & Advertising to Children of the lCC (International Chamber of Commerce) on the specific responsibilities that brands and agencies must have with regard to children and adolescents, whether in terms of product categories to be promoted or communication techniques used. This code provides a framework for communication intended for children (under 12 years old) and adolescents (between 13 and 18 years old).
Digital accessibility or e-accessibility: for the past ten years, teams of digital accessibility experts have been involved in numerous projects, notably within Razorfish and Publicis Sapient. An Accessibility Center of Excellence was structured in 2022 around the dedicated team, with experts in many cities. Digital platforms designed for clients must meet the universal criteria issued by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) in order to allow equal access to content, including for people with disabilities (visually impaired, blind, deaf, hearing-impaired, other types of physical difficulties, etc.) or with access difficulties. The key issue is the upstream training of the teams that conceive, design and develop these projects, in order to simplify the indexing of pages, to facilitate the reading of all the elements (video, images, texts, links, navigation, etc.). Lastly, to facilitate technical maintenance or content changes. In addition to compliance issues, these best practices also make the user experience simpler and more enjoyable. These expert teams may also be called upon for certification issues, as several employees are themselves duly qualified to do so.
In France, creative agencies such as Publicis Conseil, Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi have chosen to systematically subtitle films or videos for all media with Prodigious. This approach is an extension of the French Advertising initiative – AACC – to promote the universal subtitling of advertising films, www.soustitronsnospublicites.aacc.fr. This voluntary approach is applied by other teams around the world, particularly in Europe.
