JCDecaux returns to the International Advertising Festival in Cannes

Paris April 20, 2006 – JCDecaux SA (Euronext Paris : DEC), the number one outdoor advertising company in Europe and number two worldwide, will be the official sponsor at the 53rd Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival for the Outdoor Advertising Category.

The newly created “Outdoor Lions” will recognise the importance of creativity in outdoor specifically, having previously been combined with Press. The Festival has proved a supporter of the outdoor industry in the past by awarding Jean-Claude Decaux, Founder and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of JCDecaux, the Media Person of the Year Award in the year 2000.

Commenting on the Cannes Lions sponsorship, Jean-Francois Decaux, Chairman of the Executive Board and co-CEO of JCDecaux, said: “We are coming back to Cannes to support the decision from the International Advertising Festival to create a separate category for Outdoor Advertising. For the first time, Outdoor will have its own Lions Award highlighting the importance of Outdoor on the world media platform. The outdoor Lions Award is a new exciting opportunity for creative people to enter the Cannes competition”.

The president of the panel judging the Outdoor Advertising category this year is Fernando Vega Olmos, President of VegaOlmosPonce, Argentina and Creative Director for Unilever Worldwide (Lowe). Fernando has been affiliated with the festival since 1992, when he was the first Argentinean creative to win a Gold Lion. He has since collected a number of awards including four Cannes Lions for Axe and Rexona at the last festival in 2005

Commenting on the Cannes Lions sponsorship, Terry Savage, CEO of the International Advertising Festival, said: “I am thrilled that JCDecaux is becoming a sponsor of the International Advertising Festival, giving creative agencies a new opportunity to win this challenging and prestigious Outdoor Lions Award.”