Many untold pleasures summarized in one word

Don't talk about leaders of Perrier of health, youth and minerality. Since the discovery of its source, advertising creations of Perrier have continued to praise the pleasure taste, lightness, meaning of the feast, madness, offbeat humor... To the design of the small round bottle, inspired by the shape of Indian gymnastics clubs. From 1903 to the present day, his very rich advertising saga thus accumulate more fanciful signatures: "Champagne of waters from table" to "Water makes pschitt!", passing by "Perrier, this is crazy!"... Begins yet in very austere manner. It is indeed a doctor, Louis - Eugène Perrier, which first creates the water mineral drinks and Vergèze sanitary products company, in 1898, in the Gard. But it is the British Saint John Harmsworth offering him his letters of nobility in positioning of at the outset the drink as a high-end product. With him and his friend sir Thomas Lipton, Perrier made his entry to Buckingham and displays on the label: "Provider patentee of his Majesty the King of England." Very cleverly, the small double round bottle development by also becoming supplier of the Court of Spain. Perrier now wears the Royal sponsorships on its label. What better claims

Of drunkenness to the madness

Already, Perrier stands. First advertisements of the drink, consistently declined in French and English, put forward a concept explosive: "w-per". Obvious contraction of whisky and Perrier, but the most suggestive "whisper", "sigh" in English also... Many untold pleasures summarized in one word. At the beginning of the 1930s, a larger advertising rationality however begins to prevail. Harmsworth to cover a broader clientele. But always with lots of chic: Mark hiring for its advertisements the best illustrators (Dubout, Rojan, Libis...) and the large feathers of the time (Colette, Carco, McOrlan, Valéry, Giono).1933 sonne the era of the break, with the takeover of Perrier by Gustave Leven, and his association, forty years, with the eccentric advertising Jean Davray, friend of Gide and Mauriac, inventor of the slogan "Perrier".This is crazy! . With Davray, opens a new chapter in the saga advertising, based on elegance but on madness, self-deprecating. Morvan, Savignac and Villemot affichistes then produce some of the lighthouses of the advertising saga images. Andy Wahrol "himself" brings his stone building in 1983, by designing posters transparent, dreamlike... But Richard Girardot, the marketing director of the trade mark, well perceived the limits of the slogan "Perrier, it's crazy!": "young people loved the slogan, but drank less Perrier, says Benoît de Philippe Fleurian, Director General of the agency Ogilvy Paris, need to change the signature.But the discovery, on 10 February 1990, traces of benzene in a dozen bottles, alter the road map. The staff immediately recognized the facts and several hundreds of millions of bottles Perrier are destroyed in the aftermath. The operation number to almost 1 billion francs. When the advertising device, it takes a radical turn: "Havas designs a very institutional poster, designed to restore credibility to the mark, while RSCG tackles a much more emotional communication, intended for the general public," remembers Benoît de Philippe Fleurian. But the case of benzene lose half of its sales to the mark. The agency Ogilvy is then charged with a delicate mission: "Asserting sovereignty, strength and the power of the brand and the back on his pedestal," intimate Richard Girardot (1), Director commercial and marketing of Nestlé Sources International (NSI). It is thus was born the famous signature, in 1991, "water, air, life" and the three films that are to follow: "The lioness", of Jean-Paul Goude (grand prix strategies) and grand prize at Cannes, "The planets" and "McEnroe" of Ridley Scott. Either an overall budget of 20 million francs. Then, after a last spot, "La Madelon", the curtain falls and budget joined Publicis. March 22, 1992, at the end of a turbulent OPA, Nestlé took the small round bottle for 8 billion francs. It will remain from 1993 to 1998 in the Group of Maurice Lévy, who had supported Nestlé at the OPA. Before returning Ogilvy, who will design the famous campaign of t-shirts adorned with famous facial, Einstein passing by Captain Haddock, drawn being spit out loudly product: water!

But the years follow... and not look. Launched immediately after the "pipolisés" t-shirts, the small round bottle tries a hipster "Fluo" formula, on bottom of deliberately tart and artificial colours. The formula does not, and in 2008, Perrier negotiates a 180 turn: "we wanted to remake a movie such as"The lioness", returning to the basic Perrier nature: heat, thirst, elegance", says Benoît de Philippe Fleurian, General Manager of Ogilvy. Directed by Frédéric Planchon in Ipanema, at the Brazil, the film is up to the ambitions of the - spectacular - mark reverting with the great tradition of the 1980s. In a world overwhelmed heat, where objects (bikes, cars...) based quasi-inexorable way, a young woman hungry eagerly sought his bottle of Perrier, condition of survival. The bottle falls out the window, she Gushes, follows, plunge to 10 metres in the pool of turquoise, before swallowing with greed, in a perfect remake of "The lioness" spot, small bubbles. Presented at the Cannes Advertising Festival, the display campaign won a silver lion last June.