The upstart son stiffs his father to wrestle control of the company
from his uncle. He is helped by his cousin who has fallen out with his
own father. Having gained control, the son then turns on the cousin, but
cedes power when he flees the country to avoid imprisonment for
forgery.
Curiously, the two cousins then join forces again and win a final
victory that drives the old man to his death. Their victory is
short-lived. Both go through messy divorces and the business takes a
downturn. Outsiders take control, and the upstart is murdered by a
gunman acting for his ex-wife.
Not the Leo Burnett/MacManus saga, but the Guccis - an everyday tale of
Italian family life. Well-promoted by Channel 5, it was a slick,
professional documentary, scheduled against the wearisome whimsy of
Ballykissangel.
Frustrating as it is to accept for those of you who still can’t receive
it, Channel 5 is now a fully integrated part of the daily viewing
schedule. Just 20 months after launch, it appears well on the way to
conquering the great viewing public’s fear of any new channel
buttons.
The happy coincidence of launching within the same timespan as the
plethora of digital channels has probably helped. Belatedly, we appear
ready to experiment with our television viewing habits.
It’s good to be able to be nice to David Elstein, Channel 5’s chief
executive - especially before the airing of the relaunched Miss
World.
Although the likes of Dawn Airey and Nick Milligan played major roles in
the channel’s success, Elstein has led from the front.
He has fought endless battles to win better distribution, and conducted
a national retuning exercise that could have been a disaster. He has
been the channel’s talisman and has also been careful to ensure his
battle for viewers was fought not with his commercial television rivals
but with the BBC.
Channel 5 is not perfect, but it is a success with viewers and
advertisers - if not critics. Elstein is a worthy winner of Campaign’s
first ’media achiever of the year’ award.
He beat Sky’s Mark Booth after a debate among the illustrious jury under
John Perriss for the inaugural Campaign Media Awards.
Listening to Procter & Gamble’s Bernard Balderston, Heinz’s Eric
Salamon, Nestle’s Matthew Pilcher and Kimberly-Clark’s Oliver Cleaver
argue the toss with David Pattison and Phil Georgiadis over the winners
gave the lie to the idea that clients do not understand or cannot get
excited about media.
Campaigns such as Yellow Pages and Polaroid emerged as clear winners,
and set a very high standard for future events. I’m sure there will be
those who’ll quibble with some awards, but the overall standard is
frighteningly high.
They also offer a timely reminder that amid all the talk of new media
and the digital revolution, there’s a real-life challenge being
undertaken daily: cutting through the clutter that already exists and
coming up with genuine media ideas. On the evidence of the Media Awards,
there are plenty of them about.
Have your say in CampaignLive’s forum, found on channel 4 at
www.campaignlive.com.
