PR

French aerospace group Dassault Aviation, designer and maker of the Rafale multi-role fighter plane and the Falcon business jet, has instructed its staff on how to respond to, and notably how to avoid directly answering, prickly questions over its weapons exports to "dictatorships" and its sales of private jets for carbon-rich travel by the wealthy few. Justine Brabant and Mickaël Correia reveal here the group’s bullet-point internal documents on how to evade the issues, and detail the hypocrisy of its PR campaign.

Havas, the communications, marketing and advertising giant owned by French billionaire businessman Vincent Bolloré, has for long played a key role in French politics, steering PR campaigns for both the rising stars and those who have fallen from grace. But its main political influence lies within the machine of government, where it guides ministerial strategies and former staff find new careers as senior advisors and heads of communications departments. As Mathieu Magnaudeix and Ellen Salvi report, with the election of Emmanuel Macron the network of the “Havas boys”, as one former minister described them, has never been more active at the heart of power.