I can well imagine the spluttering of many clients when they picked up
their copy of Campaign last week and learned that Bates Dorland was
paying Paul Twivy, its former group chief executive, a sum, as Private
Eye would delicately phrase it, not unadjacent to pounds 200,000. Many
marketing directors would have choked on their humble pie as they read
it. Two hundred grand for a few lunches and some glad-handing?
Preposterous!
When I told the editor I was going to mention Twivy’s pay packet, he
said ‘fine, so long as you’re not naive’ - he meant that whatever Twivy
was trousering each month was a fraction of what his agency was making
for its clients. What’s more, Dorlands’ London profit for ’95 (a sum not
unadjacent to pounds 11 million) is the highest ever recorded for a
Bates agency. ’Nuff said.
My spluttering, however, was reserved for the pathetic sums agencies pay
creative teams on placements, also reported in Campaign last week. Young
creatives need to get a taste of the industry somehow, but pounds 50 a
week to include travel to and from Canary Wharf and you have to sign
off?
I wish ad agencies were not quite so proficient at shooting themselves
in the foot. They stand firm in defence of the pounds 200K-a-year chief
executive, then they expect people to sign off the dole, live in London,
give of their best in an unfamiliar agency, and survive on pounds 50 a
week. As the guys at GGT (pounds 100-pounds 150 for a week’s placement)
might say - poncy-arsed exploitation? Get real!
Finally, a quick plug for a brilliant set of commercials created by J.
Walter Thompson. Get thee to a Hertfordshire cinema (these are local
council-funded, the Government refused to cough up) to check out the new
anti-road rage ads which show pedestrians mimicking bad driving
behaviour. You can keep your pounds 200K, I’d pay Campaign pay to watch
these.
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