Marcel Bleustein

French advertising giant who set the standards of public presentations of products for many years. Bleustein was the founder and president of Publicis in 1927, remaining as CEO for 60 years. His first radio commercial was aired on Radio Tour Eiffel in 1929. He was founder of Radio-Cité, 1935, founder of Régie-Presse and of Cinéma et publicité in 1938. In 1939, watching the war clouds gather, he joined the French resistance movement and during WW II fought as a bomber pilot. The youngest of an immigrant family of nine children, Marcel went to work early, selling furniture by the time he was 14. By the time he was 21, he was active in the advertising business with his own ideas of how to present product inducement. Eventually, Publicis developed agencies in 122 towns in 72 countries, ranking first in Europe, second in France and tenth in the world. In 1958, he added another entrepreneurial venture, founding The Drugstores. His main headquarters, the Publicis building, was destroyed by arson on 9/28/1972. When he left as president in 1988 the company had a $1.2 billion turnover and the 1998 figures show over $5 billion dollars. Bleustein wrote The Rage to Persuade: Memoirs of a French Advertising Man, (Chelsea House, 1982). Married on 11/21/1939, he had three daughters; Marie-Françoise, who died accidentally on 12/31/1967, Elisabeth Badinter, born in 1944, and Michèle. Bleustein died in Paris on 4/11/1996.