Parisian business district La Defense has launched a major advertising campaign across prominent locations in the heart of London urging Brexit-battered City workers to move to France.
From today, adverts emblazoned with the call to 'join the frogs' will go live at Heathrow airport, Eurostar stations including St. Pancras International and Paris Gare du Nord, as well as across a range of national and financial publications.
Commenting on the launch Marie-Célie Guillaume, CEO of Defacto / Paris La Défense says: “With the UK now looking likely to opt for a hard Brexit resulting in the loss of passporting rights, this advertising campaign is our way of rolling out the blue white and red carpet to the thousands of talented people and leading businesses looking for a new European base.”
The launch of the campaign comes just weeks after French regulators announced plans to relax their famously arcane rules by speeding up licensing procedures and providing English-speaking contacts for British financial institutions and fintech firms looking to relocate their business in the event of a hard exit from the European Union.
Paris is not alone in attempting to court financial institutions and other professional services in the wake of Brexit. In the immediate wake of the British referendum in July, German centre-right political party Freie Demokraten drove a giant billboard truck into the heart of the capital emblazoned with an invite for Brexit-scarred startups to move to Berlin.