Charles and Yvonne de Gaulle created the Fondation Anne de Gaulle in 1945 in honor of their daughter Anne, born with Down syndrome. For 75 years, the foundation has been campaigning to make society more inclusive for the mentally disabled. But still to this day, they remain mostly invisible and excluded from much of society, including public transport. For the Foundation, this was unacceptable. Our challenge was to give an unprecedented media visibility to the foundation’s cause.

Our strategy and activation enabled the Foundation to reassert its refusal to accept things as they are. It also endorsed calls by other charity organizations for a paradigm shift in support for people with disabilities. Worldwide, one in six people live with a disability.

Charles de Gaulle is the French equivalent of Winston Churchill. He is the hero of WW2, founding father of the constitution and the first President of the 5th Republic. His influence and heritage are still tangible today, with many in France claiming to be Gaullist.

As such, everybody in France knows of de Gaulle. According to polls, he is even regarded as the greatest Frenchmen of all time. So, this campaign could only be impactful in the French cultural context: we leveraged a cultural icon and a pillar of contemporary French identity to convey an impactful message of inclusivity.

The campaign had tremendous PR and social media repercussions. More than 200 articles were published in 13 different countries, with over €1 million in earned media and reach of 50 million. A large number of political and institutional figures, social entrepreneurs and artists known for taking a stand on disability rights shared the operation on social media.

Our strategy and activation enabled the Foundation to reassert its refusal to accept things as they are. In addition, it endorsed the call from other charity organizations for a paradigm shift in the support available for people with disabilities. Groupe ADP, which operates Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, used the operation to kick-start its transformation aimed at improving accessibility for people with disabilities ready in time for the Paris Olympic Games in 2024.

To create as much buzz as possible, we changed the name of the largest public infrastructure in France, an infrastructure with direct lineage to the foundation’s history: CDG Airport.

With a simple change in name, we sparked a national conversation in the media, making mental disability impossible to ignore.