Nouvelle Cour- A really cool idea by an advertising agency!

Hey ya'll!

My name is Stacy Lynn (I wasn't in class the first day), but I am also in Creative II and this is my first time blogging as well.

This summer I'm studying abroad in France, so I've been very interested in their culture and things going on over there. I found this article which is by a member of a multi-national advertising agency called TBWA. Its about how TBWA\FRANCE is giving less priveliged students an incredible opportunity and personally taking them on as their students. A couple different clients have agreed to let the students assist with their accounts as well. I thought it was especially cool because it relates to our class this semester. While I don't think we are the "less priveleged" because we go to the greatest college in the US ;0) Catch Your Limit is doing a similar thing for us.

Anyways, I thought it was interesting and hopefully you will to!! I don't really know how to do attachments or anything on here yet, so I just copied and pasted the article below. See ya'll in class today!




THURSDAYBY
JMD
Why is Thursday the best day of the week? Because it’s close enough to start thinking about the weekend and just far enough from Monday to still smile.


Many French teenagers, especially in the "banlieues" (the outskirts of large cities, in particular those with a multicultural
population, a high unemployment rate, and delinquency issues) typically do not get the education one would need to start
a successful career. Among these teenagers, some have a desire to work in the communication business. The city of La
Courneuve, considered to be an infamous "banlieue," offers them a proper education with an undergraduate diploma in
communications at the Lycée Jacques-Brel. But the students, coming from ill-famed neighborhoods, were often deterred by
potential employers for lack of professional experience.
One of their teachers, Francis Benhaïm, fed up with this situation, decided to take the problem the other way. Since the
students applying to companies and agencies located in wealthier areas of the Paris region were faced with many social
prejudices, he had the idea to make the agency come to the students – physically. You know the saying: if the mountain will
not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad will go to the mountain.
TBWA\FRANCE, when presented with the project, loved it. The idea to create a "first-step
agency" in La Courneuve to offer students the first professional experience they lacked was
both original and pragmatic – it bore all the signs of Disruption. As LCI, a very successful TV
news channel in France, was already on board and convinced by the incredible energy of
Samira Djouadi, a fellow La Courneuve citizen and now President of the agency, the project
took off quickly. Two of TBWA\FRANCE’s biggest clients, SNCF and BNP-Paribas supported
the initiative by assigning real projects to the new agency, and Paprec, the leading recycling
company in France, generously offered to house the new-born agency on its premises -- just a
few blocks away from the Lycée.
Why did we call the agency "Nouvelle Cour"? It was like a sign sent to the teenagers
of these "banlieues." A good majority use a specific slang called "verlan," which is
essentially a form of dyslexia (where syllables of some words are pronounced in reverse
order). And so, the project was named using verlan: La Courneuve became La Neuve-
Cour and finally \Nouvelle Cour ("New (Play)ground").
Today, \Nouvelle Cour is a small, yet full-fledged agency, employing young alumni of
Lycée Jacques-Brel. And there are great professionals supervising them: David Breysse,
who took the position of Managing Director, and Sofiane Ouaddah, a Jacques-Brel
alumnus. Senior advertisers from TBWA\France provide their support to control and
guide them in their work on a wide range of projects (events, advertising, edition…). In
all these jobs, the team’s unconventional but down-to-earth approach has proved to be
a decisive asset, in what can already be considered a success.
All those who believed in this initiative since the beginning gathered on October 24th to
celebrate the first anniversary of \Nouvelle Cour. Mrs. Christine Boutin, French Minister
of Housing and Urban Development, also attended.
\Nouvelle Cour is a perfect example of our ninth goal (within the 10x10 plan) to "Give back through a creative social
responsibility strategy." With Room 13 and all the initiatives that, like \Nouvelle Cour, will spring up from each part of the
TBWA network, I hope that, in the years to come, we will have many more anniversaries like this one to celebrate.
\NOUVELLE COUR
11.29.07
Copyright © 2007 TBWA Worldwide Inc. All rights reserved