Euro RSCG

The world's fifth-largest global agency, Euro RSCG Worldwide has 233 offices across the globe that specialize in advertising, marketing services, interactive, healthcare, and corporate communications.

Headquartered in New York, Euro RSCG Worldwide is the largest unit of Havas, the world´s sixth-largest communications group.

Promoting the U.S. military's "brand"
Euro RSCG helped Sears "launch its All American Army Brand's First Infantry Division collection of men, women and boys apparel" in October 2008. The line of military-styled clothing for men, women and boys is "the first time that the U.S. Army has officially licensed its marks and insignias," according to Sears' Robert McGuinness.

Army "licensing fees will be used to support military programs for troops and their families," reported Advertising Age. "The collection aims to simultaneously raise the profile of the U.S. Army and round out Sears' military program," which includes the "Heroes at Home" home renovation program and community and employee veterans programs.

Image Creators for DSK
Pam Martens reports:
 * Cassandre also profiles employees of the big public relations and marketing house, Euro RSCG, implying they are a “gang” that deftly molded the image of Strauss-Kahn to create a candidate capable of being elected President of France. The gang of four consisted of Ramzi Khiroun, Stephane Fouks, Gilles Finkelstein and Anne Hommel, all working for Euro RSCG during the periods described in the book.  The four filed a lawsuit against Plon and this past December the police went to the offices of the publisher to ascertain the real name of Cassandre.  Of course, the publisher refused.  But, really, a police action at a book publisher over a pseudonym?  Have they not heard of Deep Throat and Watergate and Washington Post and Pulitzer in Paris judicial circles?

Criticism of Wikipedia
Euro RSCG asserts that "Wikipedia cannibalizes the image" of the largest French corporations and their CEOs. Euro RSCG & Co. suggests adding a right to respond and to add their "official version" to the articles in the collaborative encyclopedia, but the Wikipedia community has already rejected that notion. At the heart of their complaint is that Wikipedia articles score exceptionally high in search engine rankings -- often ahead of the websites of the corporations themselves. Between October 2006 and April 2008, a search of the top 40 French corporations found the Wikipedia article on them on the first page of results for all but one. RSCG & Co. disputes the veracity of the articles and claims that despite that the articles "contribute to the construction of the enterprise's image and can harm the value of their brand." Pierre Beaudouin, President of Wikimedia France, responded that "PR firms forget that a Wikipedia article is not intended to assure promotion of a company, but to support our global objective, which is to create an on-line encyclopedia." He added that Wikipedia doesn't exist in order for corporations to take advantage of its popularity and reach. In addition, corporations could help ensure accuracy by pointing out good sources of information, but he said that usually they just want to have their press releases included verbatim.

Contact details
350 Hudson Street New York, NY 10014 Telephone: +1 212-886-2000 Fax: +1 212-886-2016 Email: worldwide AT eurorscg.com Web: http://www.eurorscg.com

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External articles

 * Hamilton Nolan, "Euro RSCG clarifies role in Ukraine clinic's PR efforts", PR Week, January 3, 2005.