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Paris

'No one is replaceable' – BETC president Rémi Babinet on his agency being touched by the Paris attacks

By Rémi Babinet, president and executive creative director

November 19, 2015 | 3 min read

We will always remember the nightmare that was last Friday. Where we were, what we were doing and the awful news that started to come in from everywhere. We will remember it as an unbearable event and an attack on everything we love: freedom, the pleasure of being together, democracy.

Jean Jullien’s Peace for Paris illustration

At BETC we feel particularly touched. It happened in a part of Paris we like to call ours. It happened just next door, in our neighbourhood, we all go to those restaurants and bars, and the Bataclan was a regular concert venue for us. And Eagles of Death Metal had fans amongst us. When I say us, that’s former or new BETC collaborators, permanent or temporary.

That night, in the Bataclan, all those fans were there. Some of them got away, by escaping from the roof or by hiding. Some were injured, thankfully out of danger now. I think of them and the trauma they have been through, the anguish of their close ones, and on behalf of the agency I want to share with them my support, affection and friendship.

But, during this horrible Friday evening that upset us all, the news that touched me personally was that of the death of Fabrice Dubois, killed in the Bataclan.

I am deeply shocked and moved by his death.

Fabrice was part of the very beginning of BETC. He was a brilliant writer, exquisite and funny. He was a good head taller than all of us, and in the industry we called him the green giant. People couldn’t love him enough.

In the early days of BETC, he was part of a small group of creatives who were the beginning of the movement that made the BETC trademark. Even though this group was small, it was hugely important to me as it contributed in such a crucial way to create and define our agency.

It was a happy creative time, and in my memory Fabrice remains intimately associated with that joy: Peace, Love, Death Metal. When I think of Fabrice, I look back at those years with pleasure. But in the end, the most heart-breaking and intractable part is the strong feeling – despite what we often hear said in the industry – that no one is replaceable.

Along with everyone at BETC, I send his children and his wife all our affection.

Rémi Babinet is president and executive creative director at BETC

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