End of 2013 French comedian Dieudonné hit the news by making viral and "popular" a gesture called "quenelle", sort of inverted nazi sign, pretending to be anti-system while in fact very often accompanying infect antisemitic words.

Problem is: the gesture is named after - BUT HAS NOTHING TO DEAL WITH - a traditional dish from the region of Lyon which had no reason to suffer from this sudden un-popularity.

We decided to launch a global PR campaign to undemonize the name of the REAL quenelle while boosting a small but proud producer: Maison Malartre.

Our client is a tiny local family owned company and had never advertised before. They had very little money to spend.

Our strategy however was to get "serious" to the eyes of the press by buying just enough proper "classic" outdoor advertising space. Had we stick to digital or social media, the press release would have never been carried out.

2 messages were displayed:

- Maison Malartre, there are in France quenelles we can be proud of.

- Quenelles Maison Malartre, quenelles with no after-taste.

On Friday the 17th of january, a simple but straight-to-the-point press release was sent to 300 journalists and bloggers, announcing the ad campaign for the next monday, with the catchy headline "Proud of our Quenelles" (which is obviously provocative and attracts attention at a time "quenelle" is first seen as a antisemitic gesture).

The PR campaign got incredible results with amazing awareness and business impact for Maison Malartre.

We decided to launch a national PR campaign to undemonize the name of the REAL quenelle while boosting a small but proud producer: Maison Malartre.

The PR campaign got incredible results:

- over 800 millions contacts (web, radio, TV, amazing social media interactions)

- the local brand turned nationally known and distributed (new distribution deals all over France + ripple effects in Swiss, Belgium and Spain),

- the production batch for quenelle was mulitplied by 5!

- the director of the brand got interviewed by 30 major media (national radios, press and TV... and also the NY Times!)

- the brand turned famous and attracted investors to accompany its development for quenelles... and other products!

On Friday the 17th of january, a simple but straight-to-the-point press release was sent to 300 journalists and bloggers, announcing the ad campaign for the next monday, with the catchy headline "Proud of our Quenelles" (which is obviously provocative and attracts attention at a time "quenelle" is first seen as an antisemitic gesture).

In the afternoon, already 50 majors blogs and websites were carrying on the information and the brand visuals, not to mention social media. It got bigger and bigger all week long as the campaign was displayed in the streets of Paris.

End of 2013 French comedian Dieudonné hit the news by making viral and "popular" a gesture called "quenelle", sort of inverted nazi sign, pretending to be anti-system while in fact very often accompanying infect antisemitic words.

Him and his supporters (including Nicolas Anelka in a Premier League football game) are seen reproducing the "quenelle", which becomes, to the eye of the public, a disgusting anti-Jews movement.

Problem is: the gesture is named after - BUT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH - a traditional dish from the region of Lyon which had no reason to suffer from this sudden un-popularity.

Our client is a tiny local family owned company and had never advertised before. They had very little money to spend.

Our strategy however was to get "serious" to the eyes of the press by buying just enough proper "classic" outdoor advertising space (90 faces in Paris, CBS Outdoor). Had we stick to digital or social media (with a tiny fan base), the press release would have never been carried out. We wanted the campaign to buzz and it needed this little outdoor help.

2 messages were displayed:

- Maison Malartre, there are in France quenelles we can be proud of.

- Quenelles Maison Malartre, quenelles with no after-taste.