Yesterday we ran a quick post on the news that two Publicis creatives were among the 129 killed when a group of the world’s most evil people launched several simultaneous assaults on central Paris on Friday night.
Unfortunately, we missed the fact that Publicis was not the only agency affected: several Havas employees also died at the Bataclan that night.
CEO Yannick Bollore shared their names and faces on social media yesterday.
Havas is mourning. We lost 4 of our family members. Our prayers are with Claire, Francois Xavier, Christophe & Eric. pic.twitter.com/a8G8c1JU32
— Yannick Bolloré (@YannickBollore) November 16, 2015
Bollore did not include the full names of these employees, but yesterday’s report did mention François-Xavier Prévost, an ad man and American exchange student who recently became head of advertising at a company called LocalMedia after five years with the Havas organization. Here’s his entry from En Memoire, a Twitter account set up by Mashable to share an hourly image/message regarding each of the 129 victims.
François-Xavier Prévost, 26, France. Loved tennis. Worked in advertising. “A brilliant man.” #enmémoire pic.twitter.com/iSGX219dB8
— En mémoire (@ParisVictims) November 17, 2015
Multiple employees of Havas partner Universal Music Group (parent company Vivendi) also died at the Bataclan. Here’s an image of them as displayed in the lobby of the Havas Paris office as shared by MD Dominique Delport.
Tribute to @HavasGroup and @vivendi members ( @umg @canalplus ) who passed away during #ParisAttacks pic.twitter.com/Ymt1KoXYqX
— Dominique Delport (@domdelport) November 16, 2015
On Saturday, Vanity Fair ran a piece with more information on the deceased UMG employees. The entire Havas organization continues to mourn those lost.
#Havas en deuil / #Havas is mourning
— Havas (@HavasGroup) November 16, 2015
As Adweek reported yesterday, several French agencies turned their social media profiles black after Friday’s attack in a statement of solidarity.
In one final tragic addition to this story, late Publicis Senior Copywriter Fabrice Dubois was posthumously honored at Berlin’s Epica Awards this week for his work on this 2014 Renault ad. (The judges did not know that he had passed until after they decided to give the gold to Publicis Conseil.)