Like Bu$h Will Allow This To Happen

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- A shocking French ad campaign that portrays famous French journalists as murder victims to drive home the dangers journalists face and the importance of defending press freedom may be adapted to run in the U.S. and around the world.

"As soon as I saw it, I thought 'We've got to make it travel,' " said Bob Isherwood, worldwide creative director at Publicis Groupe's Saatchi & Saatchi.

Saatchi's Paris office created three graphic print and poster ads, one featuring leading TV journalist Christine Ockrent with a bullet hole in her forehead. The other two ads show male TV journalists -- Emmanuel Chain, who is in charge of a Sunday evening news magazine program, and Guillaume Durand, who hosts Campus, a popular literary talk show -- one apparently with a slashed throat and the other shot to death in a parking lot.

'Reporters without Borders'
The ads, for French journalists' group "Reporters without Borders," say: "Start fighting for press freedom before you lose it."

Mr. Isherwood said the ads, which started running in January, had a huge impact in France. He said he is putting the campaign on the agenda to be discussed at Saatchi's worldwide creative board meeting, to be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, om April 28-30.

May use U.S. journalists
"I'm going to see if we can't run it globally," he said. "It's a very powerful idea. There's no reason we shouldn't be able to run it in the U.S., with U.S. journalists, and I'm sure people would do it."

He said the campaign could be re-shot in the U.S. and other countries, using local journalists.

"I'm sure people would do it," he said.