Sir Martin and Me

It's not easy taking down Goliath, even when Goliath is a dwarf.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Martin Sorrell
• WPP
• Y&R
• advertising
• freelancers
• slow payment
• receivables
• Napoleonic complex
• funny.

[RobertKilzer]

Wikipedia on Saatchi & Saatchi:

"In their early days the agency was known as one of the more creative in London and employed people who went on to be stars of their industry including Tim Bell and Martin Sorrell[4]. Their early growth was also helped by a policy of settling the invoices from small suppliers as late as possible, while promptly paying large, high-profile companies."

[wkurth]

@RobertKilzer 

The guy is nothing if not consistent.

BK

[daf827]

My question is, who did the little snake pay off to get himself knighted?

[wkurth]

@daf827

A fine question. All David Ogilvy, an advertising giant, ever wanted was a knighthood, and this little pygmy gets one? The UK hands out hundreds of these every year, Marty's was for "service to the communications industry." I'm thinking about what that might be, but I'm not coming up with much. Nothing, actually.

BK

[adscribe]

Funny stuff. I only take issue with one statement you made. Martin didn't single-handedly ruin this business. That started with Bob Jacoby, another height-challenged jackass who made of with shit loads of money that he didn't earn when he sold Bates to the Saatchis.

[wkurth]

@adscribe

I forgot about Bob Jacoby. He was a major piece of work. But do you know who orchestrated the Saatchi's American takeover adventure? Their CFO at the time, Martin Sorrell.

BK

[slmccabe]

I worked at Bates and Y&R (when it went public). Sad how a handful of money grubbing absentee landlords ruined thousands of careers and lives. I now live in Kentucky and am much happier.

[danmcafree]

love it Bill! every word absolutely true about he who must not be named.

but it should read "hire a flunky to look it up for you" not "have a flunky to look it up for you"

copywriters! where would you be without editors?

[Colstonbird]

I'm sorry, and I sympathise more than deeply, having been obscenely screwed by God knows how many reptilian clients but what the hell makes you think Martin Sorrell spends his time looking at every damn invoice that comes into WPP?

[MrPantone123]

So you didn't get paid when you thought you should, haven't been freelancing long then? An ordinary TV spot that didn't even get a proper ending because you got paid. I'm wondering who's the dwarf.

I still haven't been paid by a company I did work for 9 years ago. It's a small business, I got enough work later on to override the loss.

Good luck in the future.

[wtthing]

Don't think you'll be working for Y & R again. Then again, why would you want to?

[jerzyjr22]

Hey, Bill Kurth - I laughed so hard I needed to get up the floor to write this reply!

[rituskis]

WPP runs factories that churn out homogeneous garbage. The lemmings among us clamor for lions while the real money is being made selling beige paint to mindless marketing departments who spend more time fixated on quantitative numbers than they do on their actual consumers. An awful business to say the least.

[kitzwilly]

@RobertKilzer This is an old story for WPP companies. Y&R and JWT used to pay promptly until they were taken over by Sir Martin. Actually, Y&R was one of the last, great, privately held companies. When it went public, the 6th floor buggered the company for all it was worth and forgot the agency was all about servicing clients. It went from a 1500-person NY office to about 300 now.