Last week Stuart Hall, a BBC broadcaster, ‘admitted 14 charges of indecently assaulting girls, one aged nine’.
It emerged in what the BBC call a ‘Respect At Work‘ review, that ‘some behaviour appeared to go unchallenged by senior managers, with certain individuals seen as being ‘untouchable‘ due to their perceived value to the BBC’.
Read more on Gagging clauses: what every business must learn from the BBC…
When I joined the advertising business, there was a new buzzword called ‘marketing’. Few knew what it meant. At Ogilvy & Mather, where my career was born, we had a guy – yes, one person in the whole agency – whose job was to explain this new concept to our clients.
Read more on Branding: understanding the importance of trust…
Last week, I read the obituary of former Cabinet Minister, Sir Timothy Raison. He served under Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher, apparently ‘gaining a reputation as the keeper of the party’s conscience on such issues as immigration, refugees, child benefit and social policy’. Bigots would instantly dismiss him as ‘Tory’. To me, it seems he was a good man. My condolences to his friends and family.
One particular sentence in his obituary resonated with me:
‘he suffered from that common affliction of intellectuals: the ability to see all sides of an argument’.
Early in my career, I worked with people like this. They are not evil. Nor do they mean any harm. In fact, as Sir Timothy appears to have been, they may even be kind, considerate and well meaning.
But they can be a nightmare to work with. Read more on The affliction of intellectuals who see all sides of an argument…
Until last Friday, I was prepared to give Blair the benefit of the doubt. Once, I even gave him my vote. It was all I could do.
If nothing else, as a brand, our Tone has always intrigued me. In the commercial world, the most successful products deliver to their consumers what the consumer wants to buy. Otherwise they don’t buy the product any more.
Because of this, many brands like, say, Marmite stand the test of time and their consumers stay loyal to that brand because they know what they are going to get (and some of them, like me, love it!). These brands have an essential TRUTH, which occasionally needs refreshment to stay relevant, but the product delivers what you know it says it will deliver – it does what it says on the tin. Look at Hovis. The ad of the decade! Even the Gorilla ends up with a glass and a half. Read more on Tony Blair – no more excuses on Iraq…
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