Denis Gancel and Gilles Deléris (W) say goodbye to marketing – Image

Make no mistake about it. The “Farewell Letters to Marketing” published this week by Denis Gancel and Gilles Deléris, the two bosses of the W agency, is not a charge against advertising. On the contrary, “we want to rehabilitate the passion for our profession” explains Gilles Deléris. On March 9, W announced the launch of Contributing Advisory, a structure designed to support companies and their managers on current environmental and societal issues. A week later, France confined itself. “On March 18, for the first time in 20 years, we separated Gilles and I,” recalls Denis Gancel. This is how the two friends decided to establish an epistolary correspondence to continue this reflection on contributing, a proposal to succeed the marketing which reigned during the second part of the 20th century.

It is from this exchange, enriched by the contributions of the executives of the agency, that this “Letter of farewell” was born. A farewell full of promise in reality since the goal is to build a new science of the relationship between brands and citizens to succeed this marketing which after being carried away is no longer of its time. “For more than half a century we have taken the public for targets that we bombard like rabbits, that we claim to give value to products that do not have any”. Today the paradigm has changed and we must take note of this change, which we share as citizens and make proposals that are acceptable ”, explains Gilles Deléris. However, there is no question of stopping. “There is a referral today between those who advocate degrowth and therefore dieting, drastically. And then there are those who note that we have seen the effects of the decrease with the Covid crisis: it leads to unemployment, poverty, populism … We don’t want that, but we know that we must take another path which remains entirely to be invented. It will go through a new market science to create new growth that will be more responsible, ”adds Denis Gancel.

So many subjects that the Covid crisis has amplified and which the States General of Communication have seized upon. These letters and reflections will also be sent to the States General, whose two bosses of W are committed players. “The goal of all this is to support the transformation of the world after,” said Gilles Deléris, his alter ego adding that it would be paradoxical if the agencies which support the transformation of their clients do not transform themselves. themselves. A project which concerns above all the future and therefore the students of the two bosses who are also teachers at Science Po. “They have an exciting avenue of transformation for the next thirty years”, enthuses Denis Gancel. It is up to current and future generations to build a new world of consumption and communication.

Farewell letters to marketing, by Denis Gancel, Gilles Déléris & Cie, Editions Télémaque, € 12

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