AD Agencies
WPP learns to live without Martin Sorrell
MUMBAI: British multinational advertising and public relations company WPP has decided to review its policies and codes of conduct and how these can be improved upon. The agency’s chief operating officer Mark Read in a staff memo said that the review will be conducted by leadership teams throughout the group.
He did not respond to allegations in reports in the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal which stated that its former CEO Martin Sorrell resigned in the midst of investigations of having paid company money (some 300 pounds) for services to a sex worker in a Mayfair brothel. Additionally, there were allegations in the reports that Sir Martin had a bullying nature towards junior employees and was curt with them.
Instead Read stated in the memo that “Although we can’t comment on specific allegations, I feel we should remind ourselves of and reinforce the kind of values we want and need to have within every part of our business: values of fairness, tolerance, kindness and respect.”
He added: “It should hardly need saying that all WPP working environments must be places where people feel safe and supported. They must also be places where people are able to raise concerns if they want to, and where those concerns are dealt with when they need to be.”
The memo also mentioned about WPP’s helpline, Right to Speak. Read mentioned that the service was available for everyone across the group that allows them to raise issues without fear of reprisal. The Right to Speak service is independently operated and protects the identity of anyone who would rather not speak directly to their respective line manager or senior official about their concerns.
The company also had its annual general meeting with its shareholders on Wednesday, during the course of which a section of shareholders protested against the appointment of WPP chairman Roberto Quarta, the handling of the Sorrell exit and the payouts being planned for him in the form of share awards, as well as the fact that he was not asked to sign a non-compete agreement when he departed from the agency last month, amidst controversy.
WPP chairman Roberto Quarta said that there was no basis to cancel Sorrell’s share awards as the company did not have any proof of misconduct. “The contract required Martin to be treated as having retired unless a definition of gross misconduct would be satisfied, which it could not, and on which the board had clear legal advice.”
As far as the non-compete clause and the payout were concerned, Quarta stated that the conditions of Sir Martin’s employment contract predated the current board. This despite, it managed to get him to take cuts in pay and benefits at a time when the agency had put up a stellar performance in 2015.
Quarta has also started an investigation within the organisation on how information about allegations against Sorrell leaked into the media.
Read who is tipped to take over CEO was quoted by the BBC as saying that “Martin was a hard-working and hard-driving chief executive. I don’t recognise the bullying nature of some of the allegations.”
Sorrell has denied the allegations which have appeared in the media but decline to say anything more.
Read meanwhile said he has spent time with group agencies and clients over the last eight weeks, reassuring them of WPP’s health today and going forward. Disclosed he in the note: “There is tremendous positivity and confidence about the future of the business. Let’s stay focused on that, and continuing to build a company we are all proud of. We all want WPP and its agencies to continue to be home to the world’s best talent, which means creating a positive, supportive and inclusive culture in every office. More importantly, it’s the right thing to do.”
AD Agencies
Fevicol releases its last ad campaign by the late Piyush Pandey
The adhesive brand’s last campaign by the late advertising legend Piyush Pandey turns an everyday Indian obsession into a quietly powerful metaphor
MUMBAI: Fevicol has never needed much of a plot. A sticky bond, a wry observation, a truth that every Indian instantly recognises — that has always been enough. “Kursi Pe Nazar,” the brand’s latest television commercial, is no different. And yet it carries a weight that no previous Fevicol film has had to bear: it is the last one its creator, the advertising legend Piyush Pandey, will ever make.
The film, released on Tuesday by Pidilite Industries, fixes its gaze on the kursi — the chair — and what it means in Indian life. Not just as a piece of furniture, but as a currency of ambition, a vessel of authority, and a source of quiet social drama that plays out in every home, office and institution across the country. Who sits in the chair, who waits for it, and who eyes it hungrily from across the room: the film transforms this sharply observed cultural truth into a narrative that is, in the best Fevicol tradition, funny, warm and instantly familiar.
The campaign was Pandey’s idea. He discussed it in detail with the team before his death, but did not live to see it shot. Prasoon Pandey, director at Corcoise Films who helmed the commercial, said the team needed five months to find its footing before they felt ready to shoot. “This was the toughest film ever for all of us,” he said. “It was Piyush’s idea, magical as always.”
The emotional weight of that responsibility was not lost on the team at Ogilvy India, which created the campaign. Kainaz Karmakar and Harshad Rajadhyaksha, group chief creative officers at Ogilvy India, described the process as “a pilgrimage of sorts, on the path that Piyush created not just for Ogilvy, but for our entire profession.”
Sudhanshu Vats, managing director of Pidilite Industries, said the film was rooted in a distinctly Indian insight. “The ‘kursi’ symbolises aspiration, transition, and ambition,” he said. “Piyush Pandey had an extraordinary ability to elevate such everyday observations into iconic storytelling for Fevicol. This film carries that legacy forward.”
That legacy is considerable. Over several decades, Pandey’s partnership with Fevicol produced some of the most beloved advertising in Indian history, building the brand into something rare: a household name that people actively enjoy watching sell to them.
“Kursi Pe Nazar” does not try to be a tribute. It simply tries to be a great Fevicol film. By most measures, it succeeds — which is, in the end, the most fitting send-off of all.
