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 80^th 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 80^th 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.