In preparation for the Soccer World Cup in Paris in 1998, Adidas wanted its agency to be present in Paris. (To represent Adidas in the US, Leagas Delaney also opened up shop in San Francisco.) Rather than sending people from the main agency to France, Leagas Delaney London decided to put its trust into the hands of local, president and creative director Pascal Grégoire (formerly of Euro RSCG GBHR in Paris) and strategic planner Luc Basier (formerly of Publicis, DDB and devarrieuxvillaret in Paris), who own 40 per cent of LDPC.

The agency's first campaign for Adidas with the tagline "La victoire est en nous" ("Victory is in us") had an enormous impact. The impetus for the campaign came from bad press and pessimistic predictions that plagued the French soccer team in the months before the World Cup. Adidas' campaign on the other hand was full of optimism, which in the end proved right. France won.

Since those successful beginnings, LDPC has attracted dozens of additional accounts and grown from a staff of seven people to a sizable 45. Besides Adidas and Ikea, its client list currently includes the French insurance company Le Gan, ING Direct, the temporary employment service ADIA, and cosmetic line Clarins, for which LDPC handles campaigns worldwide.

When Ikea searched for a new, cutting-edge agency to rejuvenate its image and appeal to a young French audience, it chose LDPC, which delivered a pertinent, simple, and humorous campaign (see Boards Nov.2001) directed by Brian Beletic. In the spot "La Fourchette" (The Fork), a young, art-student-type opens his door to receive a young woman eager to kiss him. The passionate scene ends abruptly though when the woman, leaning back on the sofa, is impaled by a misplaced fork and remains motionless. "Clean Up," the tagline says. "If you don't do it for yourself, do it for others."

A similar story line shows a couple using a plate of pasta as a prop in a seductive game, each starting at one end of a Spaghetti strand, eating until their lips meet. Here, the romance suddenly dissolves when the woman almost chokes on a shoelace of a misplaced sneaker.

In other spots, a young mother can't find her baby in her disorganized apartment, a child adds a vibrator to his truck collection, and a dog is unfortunately molested by an automatic toy robot.

Apart from the grotesque endings, the spots that broke last September have a realistic, almost documentary appearance, showing real people in familiar situations. "Because Ikea has been present in France for twenty years, the young generation didn't perceive it as a new or young brand," Grégoire explains. "The task was to renew the communication between the brand and the young audience."

Apart from its international clients, the agency operates fairly independently, says Gregoire. The Leagas Delaney offices in London, San Francisco, Germany, Italy and France don't consider themselves a network, but rather a family. "We are strong, independent agencies that share the creative spirit of the founder Tim Delaney," says Grégoire.