"Broken Souls" the Invisible Wounds of the First World War

Mar. 06, 2026

Between 1914 and long after the guns fell silent, thousands of soldiers suffered from psychological trauma. In the absence of medical understanding, many were accused of cowardice, institutionalised, or subjected to brutal treatments. A century later, their invisible wounds finally have a name: post-traumatic stress disorder.

BROKEN SOULS, created by The museum of the Great War and BBDO Paris.

Echoing the recently opened, life-size immersive trench at the Meaux site, this campaign invites audiences to grasp the intimate and psychological reality of soldiers’ experiences.

By confronting past and present, it reminds us of a simple truth: when war ends on the battlefield, it does not end in the minds of those who fought it. To embody these “broken souls," the campaign introduces a series of posters rooted in a deliberately slow, physical, and experimental process. These images are not generated.  They are altered, dissolved, weathered. Just like the men they portray.

Julien Beuvry, Art Director BBDO Paris said:

"Just as the soldiers of the First World War endured their own ordeal, we wanted these posters to undergo a trial of their own. There was an element of unpredictability in the installations and in the final visual outcomes."

 

Each poster functions as a visual mise en abyme of the soldiers' lived experience in the trenches. Three portraits. Three visual metaphors for mental trauma.

• Suffering 1,916 prints of the same portrait, cut and layered to form a trench.
• Sorrow A portrait exposed to solvent droplets for 24 hours, mirroring the relentless rhythm of the Battle of the Somme bombardments. ​​​​​​
• Distress A portrait left for 10 days at the bottom of a real trench — the average duration spent on the front line. 

The campaign extends into a series of three short documentaries, filmed inside the museum and its immersive trench, released progressively online. Three soldiers’ destinies, recounted by descendants, a historian, and psychiatrists, draw powerful parallels between past trauma and modern psychiatry:

Anthelme Mangin, "The Living Unknown Soldier"; Baptiste Deschamps, "The Wounded Without Wounds"; Ernst Jünger, "The Soldier Who Became a Writer".

Alexander Kalchev, CEO & CCO, BBDO Paris said:

"Addressing a subject this sensitive requires precision and restraint. Our role was to use creativity to make the unspeakable perceptible. Memory is also transmitted through emotion."

 

The campaign culminates in a film that reinterprets a powerful patriotic symbol: the Poilu victorieux.  Present in nearly 900 French towns and villages, the statue of the triumphant soldier is reimagined. The film reveals what the monument leaves unspoken: the invisible wound behind the heroic figure.

At a time when war once again strikes Europe, the campaign builds a bridge between the traumas of yesterday and those of today and underscores the importance of preserving memory and history: “Never forget those who never could forget.”

The campaign is visible across multiple networks in the Greater Paris region:

• Urban out-of-home campaign with JC Decaux / Marne-la-Vallée
• Videos broadcast on www.bfmtv.com et sur www.la-croix.com
• Digital displays in numerous retail locations across Paris and the Île-de-France region