Puy du Fou's 'Éternels' (2019), created by Les Gros Mots and directed by Bruno Aveillan, set a new benchmark for travel and leisure advertising in France.
ARCHIVEPuy du Fou Bets on Cinematic Spectacle to Redefine French Theme Park Advertising
Puy du Fou's 'Éternels' is a 2019 French promotional film created by agency Les Gros Mots and directed by Bruno Aveillan, launched nationally on TF1 on 21 April 2019, positioning the historic theme park as a destination of epic, cinematic magnitude rather than conventional leisure.
Puy du Fou occupies a singular position in French travel and leisure. Unlike mainstream amusement parks that compete on thrill or novelty, Puy du Fou anchors its identity in historical spectacle and immersive narrative, drawing visitors to its Vendée site through an experience closer to living theatre than a fairground. 'Éternels' was conceived to communicate this distinction at the highest possible register of craft. The campaign's single media asset — a promotional film — was the culmination of approximately two and a half years of preparation, as reported by blog.puydufou.com and confirmed by danstapub.com, signalling that this was not a routine seasonal push but a considered artistic statement.
The film premiered in prime time on TF1, France's most-watched free-to-air channel, at 20:40 on 21 April 2019, as reported by CB News. Shorter versions were subsequently planned for TF1 channels and TFX, extending reach across the broadcaster's portfolio. The choice of a prime-time television event as the launch vehicle underscored the ambition: 'Éternels' was positioned not merely as advertising but as broadcast-worthy content in its own right. Clapboard scores the campaign 69 out of 100, recognising its exceptional production ambition and cultural resonance within the French recreation and leisure sector.
Les Gros Mots built the 'Éternels' strategy on a conviction that Puy du Fou's competitive advantage is irreducibly experiential. The park does not compete on the same terrain as Walt Disney Attractions or Merlin Entertainments, the two largest theme-park operators globally by attendance according to the AECOM Theme Index. In France and across Europe, those operators leverage franchise intellectual property and continuous capital investment in ride technology. Puy du Fou's counter-position is historical depth and theatrical authenticity — qualities that demand a different creative language entirely.
David Nouaille, Puy du Fou's deputy managing director for marketing, described Les Gros Mots' broader body of work for the park as creating 'fresques' rooted in a strong, cinematic pictorial universe, as reported by e-marketing.fr. That philosophy directly shaped the strategic brief for 'Éternels': the film had to function as evidence of the park's world, not merely a description of it. By launching on prime-time TF1 — a channel commanding mass reach across the French market — the campaign sought to embed Puy du Fou's identity into national cultural consciousness rather than simply drive short-term ticket sales.
Les Gros Mots had developed Puy du Fou's visual and strategic platform from 2015 onward, according to lesgrosmots.com. The preceding 2015–2019 campaign, 'L'Histoire n'attend que vous,' had already shifted the park's communications toward epic, painterly imagery inspired by Théodore Géricault, Eugène Delacroix, and Diego Velázquez, with photography by Finlay MacKay, as reported by adsoftheworld.com. 'Éternels' represented the logical escalation of that lineage into motion: if still imagery could evoke the grandeur of the Louvre, a film could transport the French public into the park's living history.
Bruno Aveillan directed 'Éternels' for production company Quad Productions. Aveillan brings a filmmaking sensibility shaped by luxury brand campaigns and large-scale cinematic commissions, and his involvement signals the level of craft ambition Les Gros Mots and Puy du Fou brought to the project, as documented by danstapub.com and adsoftheworld.com.
The production scale was extraordinary by any measure of French advertising. According to blog.puydufou.com and Hitwest Ouest-France, filming was completed across six shooting days using five cameras simultaneously, capturing more than 60 hours of footage. The crew included 30 makeup and costume professionals, and the cast numbered more than 200 performers. Physical production assets encompassed 30 horses, 600 individual costumes, two tonnes of special effects materials, and two drones deployed for aerial capture. Creative direction was handled by Nicolas Schmitt and Gérald Schmite, with production managed by Claudia Traeger and Florian Simon and coordinated by Arthur Maillard, as documented by nyfadvertising.com and leclubdesda.org.
Post-production was entrusted to Fix Studio, supervised by Cédric Herbet and managed by Nataly Aveillan, with editing by Cécil Cahen and Thanh Long Bach. The original score was composed by Nathan Stornetta, whose work anchors the film's emotional register and reinforces its cinematic rather than commercial character. La Réclame described 'Éternels' as closer to a cinematic short film than a conventional advertising piece — a distinction that reflects both the production investment and Aveillan's directorial approach. Martin Coulais served as executive producer, with Quad Productions coordinating the full scope of an undertaking that, by volume of preparation time and physical resource alone, sits apart from the typical French travel and leisure promotional film.
ARCHIVEPuy du Fou's 'Éternels' reached approximately 1.5 million YouTube views by 17 June 2019, approximately eight weeks after its broadcast premiere, according to La Réclame. That figure, for a promotional film in the French travel and leisure category, reflects an audience willing to seek out and re-watch the work outside its paid media context — a meaningful indicator of content that functions beyond its advertising purpose.
The campaign also won the May 2019 Scan Book vote with 615 votes, as reported by La Réclame, a peer-recognition signal from within the French creative industry. No additional verified performance data — such as footfall uplift, ticket sales attribution, or brand-tracking shifts — is publicly available for 'Éternels'.
Structurally, the campaign's effectiveness rests on two compounding factors. First, the prime-time TF1 launch guaranteed mass exposure across France in a single broadcast moment, establishing the film as a shared cultural reference before digital amplification extended its reach. Second, the production's documentary credibility — more than 200 performers, real pyrotechnics, and practical horse sequences — gives the film an authenticity that computer-generated spectacle alone cannot replicate. In France's competitive travel and leisure landscape, where theme-park marketing frequently defaults to family-oriented, benefits-led messaging, 'Éternels' occupies a distinct position as a work of promotional filmmaking that functions simultaneously as brand advertising and as a stand-alone piece of screen craft.
'Éternels' is a 2019 promotional film created by Les Gros Mots for Puy du Fou and directed by Bruno Aveillan. Launched on TF1 on 21 April 2019, it was two and a half years in the making and uses more than 200 performers, 600 costumes, and two tonnes of special effects to portray the park's historical world.
Bruno Aveillan directed 'Éternels' for production company Quad Productions. Aveillan is a French director known for large-scale cinematic advertising work. Creative direction was by Nicolas Schmitt and Gérald Schmite of Les Gros Mots, with post-production handled by Fix Studio and the score composed by Nathan Stornetta.
Production of 'Éternels' required approximately two and a half years of preparation, according to blog.puydufou.com. Actual filming was completed in six days using five cameras simultaneously, generating more than 60 hours of footage that was subsequently edited into the final broadcast film.
'Éternels' premiered on TF1 at 20:40 on 21 April 2019, as reported by CB News. TF1 is France's principal free-to-air television channel. Shorter versions of the film were subsequently planned for distribution across TF1's broader channel portfolio, including TFX, to extend national reach.
'Éternels' reached approximately 1.5 million YouTube views by 17 June 2019, according to La Réclame. The campaign also won the May 2019 Scan Book vote with 615 votes, recognising its creative distinction within the French advertising industry. No verified ticket-sales or footfall data is publicly available.
Les Gros Mots has developed Puy du Fou's visual and strategic identity since 2015, according to lesgrosmots.com. 'Éternels' represents the evolution of a cinematic, pictorial platform established through the earlier 'L'Histoire n'attend que vous' campaign, escalating that approach from epic still imagery into large-scale promotional filmmaking.
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