Jacques Séguéla

Interview

• "Advertising: the best technique invented for communicating" (Rome, 03/04/98)

Biography

Famous for his successful presidential campaigns for François Mitterrand with the slogans "The Tranquil Force", and "Generation Mitterrand", Jacques Sèguèla is a flamboyant and outspoken character who has been defined as the poet of merchandising and a shameless self-promoter.

At twenty he launched the fashion for long-distance rallies in 2 CV. He graduated in pharmacy, but did not give up his passion for rallying, and completed the first round-the-world tour in a French car, an experience described in his book " La terre en rond". He then became a journalist, writing first for "Paris-Match" and later "France Soir", being nominated editor of the latter at the age of 30.

He left journalism for advertising, meeting Bernard Roux and founding Roux/Sèguèla when he was 35. Other important encounters in his life were with Salvador Dali, "the maestro of the soft clocks" and Jacques Prèvert, who taught him that communication is "like a land searching for its way between vice and virtue, commerce and art".

His campaign for "Produit Libres" for the supermarket chain Carrefour in France was judged the best advertising campaign of the last 30 years by the French public. At 45 he published his first book on the advertising profession. The advertising agency, increasingly renowned for its creativity, acquired two new companies, Cayzac and Goudard, and in 1982 opened in Italy. EURO RSCG, is now the number one media and advertising group in Europe and number seven in the world.