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In January 1980, onser, a French road-safety laboratory, became embroiled in a controversy about animal experimentation, as a result of its recourse to the use of monkeys and pigs for crash-tests. The affair was sparked off by the publication of two newspaper articles, in The Observer and Paris-Match. In February, President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing ordered the suspension of all such experiments, following a personal intervention by the actress Brigitte Bardot. A few months later, a permanent ban was placed on such experiments. The article examines how and why the antivivisectionists came to win their victory. After a recapitulation of the various phases of the campaign, the article goes on to examine the different factors involved : the influence of Brigitte Bardot, the imminence of the French presidential elections, the relations between science and society, the question of the networks or lobbies available to the laboratory, compared to those which the film-star could call upon.