On Sunday 7 March, three days before the release of the film and the day before International Women’s Day, the PPR Foundation with the support of PPR, is organising a charity avant-premiere at the Marigny theatre. This prestigious day, which will bring together more than 500 guests in the presence of Waris Dirie, President of the Waris Dirie Foundation, Liya Kebede, who plays the role of Waris in the film, François-Henri Pinault, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Roch Lener, Chairman of Bac Films, will be devoted to giving. Major sponsors, personalities, representatives from the charity sector and the fashion and entertainment worlds, will all be united on that day behind a single cause: Acts of violence committed against women.

This private screening of the film Desert Flower will be for the benefit of the charity Equilibres & Populations, which fights to promote the health and rights of women. With the funds collected - each place will be sold at 150 euros – the charity will be able to continue implementing its pilot project to encourage the ending of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the health district of Kayes in Mali, a country where female genital mutilation affects more than 90% of women. Luxury brands of the PPR Group - Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Boucheron, Sergio Rossi, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Jean Richard – are especially involved, and have each bought seats for their special delegates, who will be together in Paris for Fashion Week from 8 to 14 March.

The second key communications initiative, the debates on the health and rights of women, have been organised by the PPR Foundation, in partnership with Fnac, in five stores: Ternes (Paris), Boulogne, Lyon Bellecourt, Nantes and Grenoble. At each of these Fnac Forums, visitors will have a chance to be moved by the photo exhibit Wounds of Women by the photographer Catherine Cabrol. This exhibition will present portraits and testimonies of women who have been victims of acts of violence, and who are given voice by the artist in her wonderful book Wounds of Women published in November 2009. Book signings by the author have also been organised in addition to a number of debates on female genital mutilation, and the health and rights of women, which will bring together witnesses, legal experts, doctors and members of charities.

(Find the complete programme on fnac.com)

Within the Group’s divisions in France, action has been widespread: All these have responded to the appeal by the PPR Foundation and have make use of a number of initiatives to promote the film. Also, to help stores communicate internally about the film, the PPR Group has placed at their disposal posters and a downloading platform from where they can select banners with linked access to the website
www.fleurdudesert-lefilm.com
. Posters onsite, information in the e-newsletters and on the intranet sites: employees of the Group’s five divisions will be hard pushed not to feel involved in this event! Also, the 1,000 employees at Fnac head office will be given a copy of Waris Dirie’s autobiographical book, and a film screening is planned at the head offices of Conforama and Puma.

But action taken by the brands doesn’t stop at the doors of their stores: customers are involved too.

At Redcats, the internet medium is naturally the best for raising awareness amongst customers: banners, flashes, photos from the film and competitions with tickets to win will be online one month before the film’s release on community sites, and 15 days beforehand on commercial sites. This home-shopping leader also plans to send out a customer mail shot on the back of a sales operation.

In addition to debates organised in forums, Fnac has planned a whole series of initiatives to raise awareness among customers about acts of violence against women: Promotion of Waris Dirie’s autobiographical book, film posters, distribution of the trailer on all screens of the store from the end February (some 7,000 screens!), window dressing and POS Publicity to promote the DVD will be set up in all 81 stores located on French Territory. In the Regions, Fnac is inviting its members to 7 avant-premières organised in partner cinemas (in Montpellier, Metz and Lorient in particular). Finally on the fnac.com website, online visitors will be able to view the film’s trailer from a link placed on the page selling Waris Dirie’s autobiography.

In Conforama stores the communications strategy is similar: Film posters, playing of the trailer on all screens, POS Publicity in certain stores, and window dressing of the Paris flag-ship store in Pont Neuf, from 7 to 10 March. Just like Fnac and Redcats, Conforama will also be putting out information on its website conforama.fr.

Finally in all Puma stores, awareness-raising leaflets on the issue of female genital mutilation will be given out in the “Cat women” corners. Last of all, 7 days before the release of the film, Puma will be sending out a dedicated newsletter to the press and to its customers.