older employees of the company. Protesting French government interference in his business, Ricard resigned from the daily running of his company in 1968. Following his resignation the business prospered under the stewardship of his son, Patrick. The company merged with their great rival, Pernod, in 1975, becoming known as Pernod Ricard. By the 1990s Ricard was the most widely sold French alcoholic drink; it was sold in 140 countries. At the time of Ricard's death Pernod Ricard was the third largest global spirits company. Branding A trained artist, Ricard deployed his artistic skills in the Ricard brand's blue and yellow design, inspired by the sky and the sun of his native Marseille. Advertising of aniseed based drinks was made illegal in 1951; an exception to the advertising ban was the material sent to distributors, displays in drinking establishments and designs on delivery vans. In his autobiography Ricard wrote that ban turned out to be a "secret advantage which obliged us to exercise our imagination...". Ricard designed a jug to hold ice and water for mixing with pastis in 1935; it helped promote the brand with French consumers. Ricard produced much more drinking ephemera featuring the Ricard brand including decanters, glasses, ashtrays, clocks and playing cards. The Ricard Museum of Advertising Objects was later founded by Ricard on the island of Bendor. Sport Ricard recognised the effective use of sport sponsorship as a marketing tool for his pastis brand. Ricard was the first commercial sponsor of the Tour de France in 1948. Pickup-trucks on the Tour displayed the Ricard colours, and the company provided free music concerts along the route. In 1970 Ricard built the Circuit Paul Ricard, a race track near the village of Le Castellet in the department of Var in southern France. The circuit hosted 14 editions of the Formula One French Grand Prix between 1971 and 1990, as well as the Bol d'Or and the French motorcycle Grand Prix. After a ten-year absence from the calendar, the French Grand Prix returned at the Circuit Paul Ricard in 2018. The Le Castellet Airport was also built alongside the circuit. Later life In 1950 Ricard was the producer of one of the first French colour films, La maison du printemps. He published an autobiography, La Passion de Créer in 1983. Ricard purchased two islands in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Var in the 1950s. The uninhabited island of Bendor