People often ask us what happens to all those Faces to Watch that Campaign writes about at the start of every year. Do they go on to wealth and glory? Do they sink without trace? Do they end up ordering paper clips and things at struggling cable outfits like NTL?
Well, the truth is that the pressure of fame can often unhinge their minds and they develop weird tendencies. Such was the case with Stephen Carter, the former chief executive of J. Walter Thompson London and a Face to Watch in 1992. The evidence? His addiction to, ahem, tanktops.
All was revealed in Carter's leaving video, a copy of which ar-rived at Campaign wrapped in cash-mere culled from one of his cast-offs. His JWT colleagues were so proud of him that the tape was posi-tively filled with cheers, jeers and four-letter words of good riddance.
Imagine, if you will, a ten-minute video suitable for such an occasion.
You might come up with the topics of vast billings, creative resurgence (maybe not) and new-business triumphs.
Oh no. It was tanktops all the way. Early archive shots of a youthful, tanktop-clad Carter. Charts to prove that as he rose through the ranks his tanktop usage rose accordingly. Clips from commercials proving that he had persuaded members of the Oxo family to wear his favoured tops.
Meanwhile, top headhunter Isobel Bird is still searching for Carter's successor. Brief: must not wear tanktops.
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