The
ad man and the brothel
They say that advertising and politics – and even
journalism - are among the dodgiest professions
you could ever become involved with. A pessimistic view perhaps, but there is
some truth to it. On the other hand, good journalism can and does expose
scandals.
As for politicians they can offer packages of hope
and terror – and regarding the latter, it is the 80th anniversary of
George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the political satire warning of threats to
democracy, as relevant today as it was eight decades ago.
Funny how things come to mind, as they do in this torrent
of unconnected recollections played out at speed in my head recently and which
I felt it necessary to nail down here.
My working life began in advertising agencies, an
industry often criticised for creating demand for products we don’t really
need.
It would take a few years before I found my true
vocation, graduating from being an amateur cyclist to being paid to write about
my hobby – a dream job, really, away from the real world.
I have fond memories of a very amusing book I read
at the time, “Confessions of an Ad Man”,
by David Ogilvy of Ogilvy Benson and
Mather, one of the biggest in the ad business.
Ogilvy acknowledges from the off how suspicious some
people are of this profession. I loved his
stories. Here are a couple of them.
At a business reception, a woman said to Ogilvy, in low
conspiratorial accusing tone: So YOU are
in advertising, are you?”
At which, he leaned towards her and, in low
conspiratorial tone, whispered: “Yes, but
I implore you NOT to tell my aunt.
“For
she thinks I play the piano in a BROTHEL.”
The book was full of amusing anecdotes like that.
For instance, when pitching for a new client, Ogilvy stressed it was important
to find out how many people on the client’s side would be involved in signing
off a new campaign. You didn’t want too many coming in with their half-baked
ideas because they wouldn’t have a clue! They think they might have but they
haven’t.
He recalls how his company were one of several ad
agencies invited to pitch for a famous name account worth several £millions. They
were all there together on the day, to be wheeled in one by one and presented
to their betters, the board of directors.
And he recalls being told they would each have ten
minutes to make their pitch. When a bell rang it signalled time was up and even
if they were in mid-sentence, they must smartly leave the room.
This irritated Ogilvy so he decided to play them at their
own game.
When he and his team were invited to present their
case Ogilvy stepped forward and said he had question.
“Yes”, the pompous spokesman said. “Go ahead”.
“Thank you, Sir,” said Ogilvy. “My question is, how many people of your company will need to
agree to approve our work? “he said.
Ogilvy’s view on this was that too many people – let
us say it was six – was too many. I can’t recall now the precise number he
would be satisfied with.
I think it was two; three at most.
When the board gave its answer Ogilvy, without a
moment’s hesitation stood up and said: “Ring the Bell”. And walked out.
Loved it, loved it.
Politicians
– the good, the bad and the ugly
Politics: well there are some good people in
politics, especially in the Lib Dems. And the bad and the ugly?
Well, in the UK, the most controversial figure of
modern times who frequently comes to mind is the late Margaret Thatcher, Conservative
Prime Minister (1979 – 1990). The Iron Lady, they called her, loved and hated
in equal measure.
There is a TV programme running at present blaming
Thatcher’s policies for
creating the mess that is Britain today.
From the Falklands
war to financial deregulation and the poll tax, Thatcher transformed UK politics. One of her defining
moments was her battle with the unions, ending their stranglehold on government
with strikes and pay demands it was claimed were limiting Britain’s economic
growth!
But I pause to defer
to the record, or what passes for the record, to check on available facts for
this period.
Accounts of that
period tell us that the previous government led by Edward Heath were battling
high inflation and to counter this Heath had put a cap on wages.
The unions simply saw
it as the never-ending struggle to increase wages in line with inflation. And
that will always be the fight.
The view from
government was that union cannot be allowed to hold them hostage with strikes.
That they had too much power and must be cut back.
To many in heavy
industry Thatcher’s action to strip the unions of power was a devastating move. Many jobs were lost as mines and factories
closed, for which she would never be forgiven.
It was said that in
striving to create conditions to improve the economy she went too far and it
was the workers who paid the price.
The most violent
conflict between the police and pickets came in the Battle of Orgreave (a
coking plant) in 1984, believed to have
been a stitch up carried out by the police to discredit the miners.
Seventy-one pickets
were charged with riot and 24 with violent disorder. But the trials collapsed
when police evidence was deemed “unreliable”. A solicitor acting for some of
the pickets said it was “the worst example of a mass frame-up this century.”
The cavalry charge which slayed innocents in
the Battle of Peterloo
But without doubt the greatest outrage
of all was committed by the government against the people, the Battle of
Peterloo, a massacre in Manchester in on 16 August 1819.
The government
strived to control the narrative in the Press, but the story of the killings got
out nationally and internationally, with the Manchester Observer playing a
leading role in exposing the tragedy.
Certainly I don’t
recall being taught anything about this in school when being learning about the
Industrial Revolution.
It took the recent
film by Mike Leigh – The Battle of
Peterloo – staring Maxine Peake and Rory Kinnear, to bring this shocking
event back into focus.
This was a meeting of
around 60,000 people at St. Peter’s Field, Manchester gathered to protest at
their desperately poor lives, their struggle to afford food.
They wanted political
and economic reform which government stood against. It was a peaceful gathering. People had come
in their Sunday best. This was a time
when only 11 per cent of adult males had the vote.
But the huge
gathering alarmed and panicked the city top brass who decided the meeting
should be disbanded. How dare these
common people make demands? And so the unarmed gathering was violently
suppressed by the Government and 18 protesters were killed and 700 seriously
injured - cut down with sabres by a Yeoman cavalry charge to disperse them.
Never underestimate
what government will do to restrict public protest when pushed to it.
Fast forward 200
years to the general alarm at the arrests made at the recent protests
supporting banned group, Palestine
Action, proscribed as a “terrorist organisation” by Labour.
UN human rights
commissioner Volker Turk agrees the proscription of Palestine Action is “disproportionate
and unnecessary.”
This was a peaceful
silent gathering in support of Palestine, calling for an end to the killing of
Palestinians in Gaza, in the ongoing conflict
with Israel. The protest saw 700 elderly
people arrested but ultimately released without charge.
Cue for recalling George Orwell’s warning
Cue for the timely
reminder of George Orwell’s highly successful political satire, Animal Farm, published in 1945 and its
warning of threats to democracy.
This famous book
shares a timely 80th anniversary with celebrations for VE Day, the
end of the war with Japan.
There was a newpaper
feature on how Orwell came to write this recently, and the point was made that Orwell’s warning
is as relevant today as it was 80 years ago. The book has never been out of
print.
But back to Thatcher. Her legacy, surely, was in selling off the public utilities to
the private sector, including the water companies.
As we know the private water companies have dropped
us all in the shit by putting share-holders interests and their own ahead of maintaining
and investing in the water industry itself.
As a consequence of lining their own pockets these
past 40 years they find themselves unable to invest the necessary funds to
maintain and improve their water works. As a result, they are allowing tons of raw
sewage to be discharged into the sea and into our rivers every day. They have
become unfit to bathe in. Unfit for fishes to live in.
It is a huge health scandal which remains unresolved
and has left the water industry £65billion in debt. Under public ownership
decades ago, the water industry had no debt whatsoever.
Her successes and
failures divided Britain.
When the Irish Republican Army (IRA) attempted to
kill Thatcher by blowing up the hotel at the Conservative Party Conference
Brighton in 1984 she escaped but five died and 30 were injured.
History records that the only British prime minister
to have been assassinated is Spencer Perceval who
was shot in 1812 by John Bellingham, a business man with a grievance against his
government.
It was ever thus, grievances on one side or the other leading to inexcusable
actions. More recently the senseless killings of Labour MP Jo Cox in 2015 and
Conservative MP David Amess in 2021 invoked horror and outrage.
Hilary Mantel has the last word
In conclusion what comes fresh to mind is how a very
famous author expressed her feelings about Thatcher – on paper!
This was award winning novelist the late Hillary
Mantel who wrote a story entitled “The Assassination
of Margaret Thatcher”.
It was published in 2014, one year after Thatcher
passed away.
One reviewer called
it “Unpredictable, diverse, and even shockingly unexpected. The
Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, he said, displays a magnificent writer
at the peak of her powers”.
Mantel laughed at the MP who expressed horror that
anyone could write such a story. She
retorted that if he was so offended by that, he could have no idea how nasty
she could be, if and when the occasion warranted it. Straight talking with a
wicked sense of humour, that was Mantel. RIP.
