Vivendi: Paddington™ to Become a Champion for Children in Support of UNICEF

Regulatory News:

Vivendi (Paris:VIV), the global content, media and communications group, owner of the Paddington brand, today announces a long-term partnership with UNICEF, the world’s largest children’s organisation. The partnership will see Paddington, the beloved children’s character becoming a champion for children, and furthering UNICEF’s goal to promote the rights of children all around the world, and to keep them happy, healthy and safe. The partnership was borne out of recognition by both organisations, that the values exemplified by Paddington, of kindness, tolerance, and perseverance in the face of adversity, or marmalade-related mishaps, make him the perfect champion for children’s rights.

The partnership’s first activations will happen in the UK, the USA, and Europe and are planned to coincide with the upcoming release of Paddington 2, the hugely anticipated sequel to the 2014 film Paddington, and the 60th anniversary of the first Paddington book, which will be celebrated around the world in 2018.

In the UK, Paddington will support UNICEF UK’s campaign around refugee children and will be featured prominently in UNICEF UK’s OutRight campaign, in which millions of children around the UK, learn about their own rights and become empowered to speak out in support of the rights of all children. This year’s campaign will feature the story of the small bear, who has to leave his home in Darkest Peru, and is sent to London with a label around his neck politely asking whoever finds him to ’Please look after this bear. Thank you.’ Paddington finds a new family, home and community, with a little help from his friendly nature, politeness, and ability to stand up for himself when needed, by fixing people who have ’forgotten’ how to behave with a ’hard stare’. His story will help children in the UK learn, that the right to a home, to be cared for and to an education applies to all children.

Activation in the other countries will be communicated over the coming months.

Lily Caprani, Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF UK, said: "We are living in a time when millions of children around the world are being forced to leave their homes, and to put their trust in the kindness of strangers. As such, it seems especially appropriate and welcome to be working with a partner like Vivendi, and to have a champion like Paddington, whose own story of leaving Darkest Peru and finding a new family and home in a strange country, resonates as strongly and freshly today, as it did when it was first published. With the help of partners like Vivendi and Paddington, we will be able to make sure that millions more people hear about children’s rights, and with their support, build a world in which every child, wherever they are, knows that there will be people like Mr and Mrs Brown, to keep them happy, healthy and safe.”

Simon Gillham (OBE), member of the Vivendi Management Board, stated: "We are hugely proud that UNICEF has chosen Paddington as a champion for its campaign to promote the rights of children all around the globe. Paddington is the perfect example of tolerance, love and openness to other cultures, from Peru to the rest of the world.”

ENDS
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About Vivendi
Vivendi is an integrated content, media and communications group. The company operates businesses throughout the media value chain, from talent discovery to the creation, production and distribution of content. Universal Music Group is the world leader in music, engaged in recorded music, music publishing and merchandising. It owns more than 50 labels covering all music genres. Canal+ Group is the leading pay-TV operator in France, also engaged in Africa, Poland and Vietnam. Its subsidiary Studiocanal is the leading European player in production, sales and distribution of movies and TV series. Havas Group is one of the world’s largest global communications group. It is organized in three main business segments covering all the communications disciplines: creativity, media expertise and healthcare/wellness. Gameloft is a worldwide leader in mobile games, with 2 million games downloaded per day. Vivendi Village brings together the Paddington brand’s licensing activities, Vivendi Ticketing (in the United Kingdom, the United States and France), MyBestPro (expert counseling), the venues L’Olympia and Theâtre de L‘Œuvre in Paris, and CanalOlympia in Africa, as well as Olympia Production. With 300 million unique users per month, Dailymotion is one of the biggest video content aggregation and distribution platforms in the world. www.vivendi.com, www.cultureswithvivendi.com

About UNICEF
UNICEF is the world’s leading organisation for children, promoting the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere.

About Paddington
For almost 60 years, British-born writer Michael Bond has been delighting children and families all over the world with his stories about Paddington, the bear from Darkest Peru famous for his love of marmalade. Paddington is popular with both children and adults who feel affectionate and warm towards him and the charm and humour of the Paddington stories is the key to their enduring popularity.
Paddington’s adventures have been adapted several times for television and at the end of 2014 Paddington made his debut onto the big screen. The movie, produced by Studiocanal, part of the international content and media group Vivendi, is the best-selling non-Hollywood family movie ever released. A second Paddington movie, Paddington 2, is set to launch globally at the end of 2017.
In 2016, Vivendi took full ownership of the Paddington brand worldwide, with the exception of the classic publishing rights.

©P&Co. Ltd./SC 2017
Licensed on behalf of Studiocanal S.A.S by Copyrights Group

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