Kaye falls out with McCann as Bacardi commercial reshot

– The director, Tony Kaye is at the centre of another industry storm this week after falling out with McCann-Erickson about his latest commercial for Bacardi. The row, which centres on McCann's decision to re-shoot the commercial without Kaye's involvement, has all the ingredients of a ripping yarn. Exotic locations, private detectives and public recriminations, as well as a former SAS paramilitary, whom Kaye hired to co-ordinate "guerrilla action" in the run-up to the commercial's launch. The problems began when Kaye found out that Bacardi had hired the director, Malcolm Venville to re-shoot his commercial, which charts the training regimes, and then the match, between a black and a white boxer. The original version had been found in research to need a clearer plotline. But when Venville arrived on location in the Dominican Republic he found that Kaye had spirited the ads' two stars away to a secret location, which Bacardi only located after enlisting the services of a local "finder". Since then Kaye has unleashed a PR campaign against the pair and threatened more "subversive action". Kaye called McCann's actions a "compelling personal and professional battle of monumental proportions", claiming that his work as a director had been undermined by the re-shoot. As Campaign went to press, Kaye and McCanns were locked in discussions about proposals to keep Venville's version for TV and run Kaye's in the cinema, but no resolution had yet been reached. Ben Langdon, the chairman and chief executive of McCann, commented: "Working with Tony Kaye is always a voyage of discovery, this was a bit more exciting than most." Last year, Kaye settled with Saatchi & Saatchi after a long-running battle about a British Airways commercial, and he goes to court at the end of the month as part of his fight with New Line Pictures. Last year's legal dispute with the directors of his film company in the UK has not yet been resolved.