0:00:19 > 0:00:21Could we have light, please?
0:00:23 > 0:00:25Stand by, please.
0:00:25 > 0:00:27And mark it.
0:00:27 > 0:00:28Scene one, take one.
0:00:31 > 0:00:33And action.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37For decades British advertising pitched itself
0:00:37 > 0:00:39to us as being the best in the world.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42The story was about clever advertising
0:00:42 > 0:00:45that grew out of real British culture.
0:00:45 > 0:00:49Not like the snake oil, hard sell American tradition.
0:00:49 > 0:00:54It marketed itself as almost a branch of the arts, an industry
0:00:54 > 0:00:59with artists and craftsmen, with home-grown humour
0:00:59 > 0:01:02and imagination. It was a creative world
0:01:02 > 0:01:07and it even claimed to put governments in power.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10But I want to tell you the real story behind that pitch,
0:01:10 > 0:01:16the story of the type behind all the creative output, the ad man.
0:01:18 > 0:01:23I'll show you how this very adaptable character adopted a range of fashionable business identities.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27# Chunky carpets, Cyrilawn Chunky carpets, Cyrilawn... #
0:01:27 > 0:01:31How he symbolised the lifestyles his work promoted to the rest of us.
0:01:31 > 0:01:37You generally behaved what you weren't, which was very glamorous, fashionable and rich.
0:01:37 > 0:01:43And how a combination of excess and galloping egos marked his glorious rise.
0:01:43 > 0:01:45They don't make ads like that any more.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49That was a million two, I think. Pounds. Then.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51And a surprising fall.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54The world's biggest advertising group,
0:01:54 > 0:01:59Saatchi and Saatchi, has announced a drop in profits of more than £100m.
0:01:59 > 0:02:04And I'll show you that there's a lesson there for us all in the changing fortunes of the ad man.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27In grey 1950s Soho, before our ad man took over,
0:02:27 > 0:02:33advertising was every bit as stiff and dull as everything else in post-war austerity Britain.
0:02:36 > 0:02:37GUNSHOT
0:02:37 > 0:02:41'On duty, off duty, in the services, in civvy street, the quickest,
0:02:41 > 0:02:46'finest, brightest way to polish boots and shoes is Cherry Blossom polish.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49'Be smart, use Cherry Blossom daily.'
0:02:49 > 0:02:55British ads reflected the people who made them, people with no great enthusiasm for the job.
0:02:55 > 0:03:00Agencies were run by former army officer types who spoke nicely and who could handle clients,
0:03:00 > 0:03:03without much fun or imagination getting in the way.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07If, in the unlikely event of anything going wrong
0:03:07 > 0:03:10and the product required service,
0:03:10 > 0:03:13immediate service could be available.
0:03:13 > 0:03:17It was a very stodgy, kind of old boys' kind of business
0:03:17 > 0:03:19when we started.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22I believe that advertising, and by this I mean posters and press
0:03:22 > 0:03:24and television, are very important.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28But they are not the only weapons in a marketing man's armoury.
0:03:28 > 0:03:32They were sort of ex-guards and were very smart and pumped their cuffs
0:03:32 > 0:03:34a lot, as I recall, and couldn't
0:03:34 > 0:03:39understand people who didn't speak with a sort of very toffee accent.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41I entered this story in about 1957, '58.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44I don't think it had altered very much from 1907, '08.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47I used to have a dreadful time with my hair,
0:03:47 > 0:03:49it was so dry and unmanageable.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53It was all over the place on Monday just after it had been washed.
0:03:53 > 0:03:58On Wednesday, not very good, and simply not fit to be seen by Friday.
0:03:58 > 0:04:03When TV commercials started in 1956, the immediate assumption was that only Americans knew how to do it.
0:04:03 > 0:04:08They would ship in American film directors and American writers and it was all pretty dull.
0:04:08 > 0:04:13If you worry about dry hair use Bristow's new Lanolin Shampoo each week.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16- Do try it.- Yes, try it.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20The advertising they produced had a distinctly patronising tone,
0:04:20 > 0:04:24more civil service than what was later called a creative industry.
0:04:24 > 0:04:31And suggest that a continuation of the breakfast campaign should aim to convey the idea
0:04:31 > 0:04:36that breakfast is an essential meal of which eggs are an essential part.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39This was our first main conclusion.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44But by the early 60s, the other British creative industries,
0:04:44 > 0:04:50particularly music and fashion, were famously having their revolution, led by absurdly young talent.
0:04:59 > 0:05:05Advertisers served by polite agencies or formulaic Americanised ones felt left behind.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08This new market needed new ad men.
0:05:12 > 0:05:14The new 60s ad man needed to be
0:05:14 > 0:05:19visibly part of this new world, cool and young.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23He'd know the best, cleverest New York advertising
0:05:23 > 0:05:27but he had distinctly non-establishment
0:05:27 > 0:05:29British street smarts as well.
0:05:29 > 0:05:35But most of all he valued this thing he called creativity.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41This creative step jump in advertising
0:05:41 > 0:05:47gave early jobs to people who later became hugely important in the wider British culture.
0:05:47 > 0:05:52It was, you know, completely broken apart by all of us yobbos coming into it.
0:05:52 > 0:05:57And I think that was part and parcel really of that whole period, you know, it was to do with the 60s,
0:05:57 > 0:06:00no-one cared where you came from, where your background or anything.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02we failed!
0:06:02 > 0:06:04We failed miserably.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07- Absolutely miserably.- So did we.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11They were poets and eccentrics
0:06:11 > 0:06:14and people who used words, who could use words,
0:06:14 > 0:06:16who were full of ideas who didn't in those days...
0:06:16 > 0:06:20Hadn't been trammelled, as it were, by their education, particularly.
0:06:20 > 0:06:25Fay Weldon, David Puttnam, Alan Parker and Charles Saatchi,
0:06:25 > 0:06:29were typical of a first generation of that new breed of ad person.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33All in their early 20s, outsiders, not establishment,
0:06:33 > 0:06:37most were men, all of them driven by that 60s spirit.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43The opportunity for a 21-year-old like me was colossal because I had
0:06:43 > 0:06:46no doubts that the zeitgeist was altering, in fact,
0:06:46 > 0:06:48I liked that idea that I was even part of it.
0:06:48 > 0:06:54So I was able absolutely naturally to absorb what was going on and move with it.
0:06:54 > 0:07:00They certainly looked to American advertising for leads but not the jingle-based US hard-sell tradition.
0:07:00 > 0:07:02They were connoisseurs.
0:07:02 > 0:07:08They wanted to learn from the latest, most sophisticated, Madison Avenue operators.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12And one New York agency in particular. Doyle, Dane, Bernbach
0:07:12 > 0:07:14combined wit and visual style.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18They produced sharp, commercially successful advertising.
0:07:18 > 0:07:25I mean if you think of the first ads that Bernbach did of the little black boy
0:07:25 > 0:07:29and the headline, you don't have to be Jewish to enjoy Levy's rye bread.
0:07:29 > 0:07:33I mean what a shock it was to put a black child and "Jewish"
0:07:33 > 0:07:35in a headline for a bread.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39Or the first Volkswagen that he did, Helmut Krone art-directed.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42It just had a picture of the Beetle and it said lemon
0:07:42 > 0:07:45because, of course, it was a ridiculous looking car
0:07:45 > 0:07:47compared with Pontiac and Oldsmobile.
0:07:47 > 0:07:55So he debunked all that had been advertising and really took a very, very fresh approach.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01Originally Doyle, Dane, Bernbach's one equivalent in London
0:08:01 > 0:08:04was the Soho agency Collett, Dickenson, Pearce. They had it.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08They were the first agency to actively recruit this new generation
0:08:08 > 0:08:13of ideas people, "creatives", and give them real influence early on.
0:08:15 > 0:08:21So it's the very first agency where creative people were, were given their heads really.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26The whole premise of the place was, whatever we created,
0:08:26 > 0:08:31if it was approved by John Pearce or Colin Millward, who was the creative director,
0:08:31 > 0:08:35then the account men were charged with the job of selling it.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38And if the clients didn't like it they were more likely to get rid of
0:08:38 > 0:08:42the clients than they would be to get rid of us, the creative department.
0:08:46 > 0:08:51The managers who recruited this new talent weren't just looking to update existing work.
0:08:51 > 0:08:55They wanted people who'd know instinctively how to work with new,
0:08:55 > 0:08:59more visual media, the telly and the new colour print technology.
0:09:02 > 0:09:08The arrival of the Sunday colour supplements brought a new kind of glossy consumerism into the house.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12And it was perfect for the new ad man to play with.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17The Sunday Times magazine, certainly for us at Collett's,
0:09:17 > 0:09:22gave us a showcase, an opportunity to strut our stuff and tell our story
0:09:22 > 0:09:25and we were then encouraged, to mail out every week
0:09:25 > 0:09:28The Sunday Times colour magazine to all of our clients to show what wonderful work we were doing.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32I'm not sure how many products we sold but we were doing a hell of a job selling the agency.
0:09:32 > 0:09:39Suddenly instead of advertising being this irritant, which was this bottom right hand corner ad that interrupted
0:09:39 > 0:09:43the very interesting article, it suddenly started to be as interesting
0:09:43 > 0:09:49and dominant in a newspaper as the actual journalistic materials.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53This astonishing, at the time, change in print
0:09:53 > 0:09:57was followed in the late 60s by an even bigger one in TV.
0:09:57 > 0:10:02Colour television was becoming affordable in Britain, it hugely expanded the creative potential
0:10:02 > 0:10:07of TV advertising, justified more ambitious ideas and bigger budgets.
0:10:07 > 0:10:13This generation of ad men had grown up with the telly, they knew its visual language.
0:10:13 > 0:10:18Television advertising changed everything and it needed, in a sense, a new generation
0:10:18 > 0:10:22to understand that television because the previous generation had not been
0:10:22 > 0:10:25brought up with television so they didn't know how to write for it.
0:10:25 > 0:10:29And this young generation who went on to do so many marvellous things
0:10:29 > 0:10:32understood cos they'd been brought up watching it as kids.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35The ad man understood that the commercials actually
0:10:35 > 0:10:39had to entertain viewers just as much, maybe even more,
0:10:39 > 0:10:41than the programmes.
0:10:41 > 0:10:47Our aim always was that, here comes the commercial break, it interrupted a really
0:10:47 > 0:10:54good programme so we better make sure what we were going to say and present was as interesting as the programme.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57And not only that, maybe it might be more interesting.
0:10:57 > 0:11:06And so, you know, you had miniature films, suddenly as feature films, but done in 30 seconds.
0:11:06 > 0:11:10You're going to go into people's living rooms that hadn't invited you,
0:11:10 > 0:11:14so could you leave them a little richer for the experience
0:11:14 > 0:11:17rather than poorer when you've left after 30 seconds?
0:11:17 > 0:11:20That's a shame, really.
0:11:20 > 0:11:21She was a fine old ship.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24They didn't mention the "old" bit when I booked my passage.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28Oh, come off it, Spratt, old chap. Still, pity she went down before we finished dinner.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31Missed the liqueurs, what?
0:11:31 > 0:11:36The ad men knew that to sell to Brits you had to win them over, make 'em laugh.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38They understood the real British humour.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40They knew about the delicious embarrassments of class.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43I should say so, sir.
0:11:43 > 0:11:45- Cockburns is it?- Cockburns?
0:11:45 > 0:11:47Cockburns. Very good.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49Oh, you mean CO-burns?
0:11:49 > 0:11:52Yes, Special Reserve.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54The customer knows perfectly well you're trying
0:11:54 > 0:12:01sell them something but if you make them feel good about it or don't bash them over the head,
0:12:01 > 0:12:08they're much more likely to actually do as you suggest and respond well, if not buy your product.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12The ad man knew how to get to the family audiences early telly drew.
0:12:12 > 0:12:17They created memorable characters who enlivened some pretty dreary little products.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20They kill them with their metal knives...
0:12:19 > 0:12:20THEY LAUGH
0:12:20 > 0:12:24Boil them for 20 of their minutes.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27Then they smash them all to bits.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30They are clearly a most primitive people.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35# For mash, get Smash. #
0:12:35 > 0:12:39Television was in its own first golden age,
0:12:39 > 0:12:41meaning huge audiences of 20 million or more.
0:12:41 > 0:12:46Knowing the medium, the ad men recruited TV's biggest stars to front commercials.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48- Ah, buona sera...- Good evening, sir.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52- What can I get you?- Ah, do we have a Cinzano of some sort, per favore?
0:12:52 > 0:12:55Yes, sir, there is Cinzano rosso, seco, bianco and new rose.
0:12:55 > 0:12:59Oh, the complete set. Someone must have told you I was coming.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02I'll have a Cinzano bianca, shaken, not stirred.
0:13:02 > 0:13:08I did a whole lot of commercials with Leonard Rossiter for Cinzano where, you know,
0:13:08 > 0:13:10we just, we were just improvising really.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14It was Leonard who come up with this idea of spilling a drink on Joan Collins
0:13:14 > 0:13:20and suddenly this was talked about all the time and in the papers and not only that and then suddenly
0:13:20 > 0:13:25the comedy programmes started to ape the joke of spilling stuff.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29And rather than us copy what had gone before,
0:13:29 > 0:13:34which was how we started out, they started to copy us and copy commercials.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38And in a funny kind of way so that the commercials themselves become that much more important
0:13:38 > 0:13:44and people kind of look forward to, "Did you see that ad last night with such and such? Wasn't that funny?"
0:13:44 > 0:13:46You know, and that had never happened before.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49- Hello.- Oh, Melissa darling,
0:13:49 > 0:13:51you're early. Would you like a Cinzano?
0:13:51 > 0:13:53No, thank you. I've just had one.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57The most important thing of all is, we were doing all this
0:13:57 > 0:14:02supposedly creative, fresh, original stuff that we were having so much fun doing,
0:14:02 > 0:14:08and suddenly the clients liked it and suddenly we started to get business and suddenly the agencies
0:14:08 > 0:14:13started to grow from doing interesting creative work and that had never happened up to that point.
0:14:13 > 0:14:15- Thank you.- Ah, yes, gracias.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20- Ah, due?- No, no, no, no, mine was a Cinzano as well.
0:14:20 > 0:14:22Ah, now that's better.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25Oh, can't you just smell those Italian wines?
0:14:25 > 0:14:28BOTH: Suffused with herbs and spices from four continents.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30Oh, I'm being boring! Oh, sorry.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33Sorry.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35Getting your head down, sweetie? Jolly good idea.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39When commercial television came along it was unbelievably powerful.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42They used to say you could hit the entire population
0:14:42 > 0:14:46with an ad in Coronation Street and then an ad in News At Ten,
0:14:46 > 0:14:51so you'd hit everybody, there'd be no other television messages.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55Television was by far the most powerful medium and so your ads
0:14:55 > 0:14:59would appear today and there would be queues in your shops tomorrow morning.
0:14:59 > 0:15:01It was that kind of powerful.
0:15:01 > 0:15:02When are we going to order?
0:15:02 > 0:15:05In a few short years the new ad men had changed British advertising
0:15:05 > 0:15:11from a dull marketing tool that nobody liked to being a central part of popular British culture.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13Viewers actually wanted more.
0:15:13 > 0:15:18The only drawback is, I don't think there's enough advertising.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21I think there should be... especially on BBC TV.
0:15:22 > 0:15:27And all this ad boom in the 1970s too, when the British economy was in a very bad way.
0:15:27 > 0:15:34But by then the ad man wasn't worrying, he was getting his rewards.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37The more effectively we did it, the more we were encouraged.
0:15:37 > 0:15:39And we were all earning very good money.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43I mean, to their credit, the ad agencies, certainly Collett's, realised that...
0:15:43 > 0:15:47I remember John Pearce saying, "You pay peanuts, you get monkeys."
0:15:47 > 0:15:49We were not treated like monkeys.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54A lot of night clubs were opening and a lot of restaurants were opening
0:15:54 > 0:16:01and we did go to Tramp and these kind of places.
0:16:10 > 0:16:12These people slept around a lot and they had a lot of money and
0:16:12 > 0:16:16they lived very well and knew what was going on.
0:16:16 > 0:16:22Because of the nature of advertising at that time you felt that you were at the heart of things.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31You could say the 70s ad man was a sort of lucky chancer.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35Right generation, right time, right media climate.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41But to outsiders it was starting to look like
0:16:41 > 0:16:46very powerful business voodoo, the ability to change hearts and minds.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52And since perception is everything, the ad men started to exploit it,
0:16:52 > 0:16:55to market themselves as key movers and shakers in 1970s Britain.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59MUSIC: "Suffragette City" by David Bowie
0:16:59 > 0:17:02What Britain needed in the grim 70s, so he thought,
0:17:02 > 0:17:06was escapism and what they called aspiration.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08He could shape public opinion.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12The ad man was starting to brand himself
0:17:12 > 0:17:16as a sort of smart shaman, a social engineer.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19# Don't lean on me, man Cos you can't afford the ticket
0:17:19 > 0:17:23# Back from suffragette city Suffragette! #
0:17:24 > 0:17:26Any minute now you're going to see...
0:17:26 > 0:17:33Advertising started to move outside FMCG - fast moving consumer goods - into more ambitious projects,
0:17:33 > 0:17:37like changing attitudes and behaviour towards struggling nationalised industries.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40Spend a day with someone you care for.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43It's much cheaper than you think because...
0:17:43 > 0:17:48- # This is the age... #- Of the train.
0:17:48 > 0:17:54The ad man behind the planned "fix it" for British Rail was a showman and ex-actor and shaman
0:17:54 > 0:17:55called Peter Marsh.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58Marsh aimed for a high profile.
0:17:58 > 0:18:00He wanted to be the industry's first celebrity.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07Ladies and gentlemen, I would like you to meet Peter Marsh.
0:18:07 > 0:18:13# Friday night, Saturday morning... #
0:18:13 > 0:18:18'Well, advertising is essentially a personality business.'
0:18:18 > 0:18:21I used to describe myself as an actor-manager
0:18:21 > 0:18:23in the theatre of commerce.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25So you use your self-publicity
0:18:25 > 0:18:28as part of the publicity for your clients?
0:18:28 > 0:18:30- Absolutely right. - It's part of the business.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34'First of all, everybody likes to be identified with and committed to'
0:18:34 > 0:18:43and involved with success and my job was to say, "We are very successful", and demonstrate it.
0:18:43 > 0:18:49Peter Marsh was always on the telly in the 1970s as the unelected spokesman for his peers.
0:18:51 > 0:18:56Oh, I think there's a lot of egotism, there must be, because the advertising business
0:18:56 > 0:19:00is one of the last few truly remaining entrepreneurial businesses
0:19:00 > 0:19:03where you live or fall by the power of your decision.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07So he really began to become the spokesman for our industry
0:19:07 > 0:19:10and we were all truly appalled by it
0:19:10 > 0:19:13because he represented everything that we loathed.
0:19:13 > 0:19:15Absolutely everything that we loathed.
0:19:15 > 0:19:20You know, terrible jingles and stuff like that, and of course you know, they do actually work.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23# It's the big - boom! - thick - boom!
0:19:23 > 0:19:26# Chunky carpets, Cyrilawn Chunky carpets, Cyrilawn... #
0:19:26 > 0:19:31Marsh came along and he basically sang the brief
0:19:31 > 0:19:36and found out what the client wanted to hear and then sang it to them.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39# And it's the biggest bargain ever so I say it again
0:19:39 > 0:19:42# Cyrilawn Chunky Carpets Cyrilawn - Get off me barrow! -
0:19:42 > 0:19:45# Cyrilawn Chunky Carpets Cyrilawn, boom-boom! #
0:19:45 > 0:19:46Peter Marsh!
0:19:47 > 0:19:50Marsh knew his audience, he sussed that his personality
0:19:50 > 0:19:55and his profile, just as much as the work he produced, could be the selling proposition.
0:19:55 > 0:19:57So he made himself into a brand.
0:20:08 > 0:20:15Branding - reputation - was becoming central to the competition for advertising clients.
0:20:15 > 0:20:20But ad men didn't all go after personal publicity, some made their companies the brand.
0:20:20 > 0:20:25In 1970, Charles Saatchi, who'd been an advertising copywriter at Collett's,
0:20:25 > 0:20:28set up Saatchi and Saatchi with his younger brother Morris.
0:20:28 > 0:20:33They had an early hit with a campaign to promote contraception for the Department of Health.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37Well, the pregnant man probably, to my mind,
0:20:37 > 0:20:39is the greatest advertisement ever written
0:20:39 > 0:20:42because it is everything that a great advertisement should be.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44An utterly stunning photograph,
0:20:44 > 0:20:47seems silly now, but at the time the sight of a man
0:20:47 > 0:20:50who was apparently pregnant was absolutely extraordinary.
0:20:50 > 0:20:51And what a line,
0:20:51 > 0:20:55"Wouldn't you be more careful if it was you that got pregnant?"
0:20:55 > 0:20:56I mean it's just so provocative.
0:20:57 > 0:21:03Saatchi and Saatchi consciously aimed from the start to be the world's biggest advertising agency
0:21:03 > 0:21:08and they knew that a great creative reputation wasn't enough,
0:21:08 > 0:21:11they had to be really commercial.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18What the Saatchis did, they just brought in this kind of much more ruthless, much more focused,
0:21:18 > 0:21:25much more businesslike, much more aggressive, acquisitive, we want it, because they saw right from...
0:21:25 > 0:21:31I don't know their own psychological reasons, they seemed to be obsessed with size.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34For a start they ignored the older, gentlemanly rules of Adland
0:21:34 > 0:21:38by ruthlessly pursuing their competitors' clients.
0:21:38 > 0:21:39It tends to be...
0:21:39 > 0:21:43"We've got something that we think you might be interested in seeing.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47"We've got some talent, you ought to look at them because you're in the business of buying
0:21:47 > 0:21:49"advertising services and you ought to have a look
0:21:49 > 0:21:51"at all the services available."
0:21:51 > 0:21:53In some cases it would be very specific,
0:21:53 > 0:21:55"We don't think your advertising is working in the marketplace,
0:21:55 > 0:21:57"why don't you come and talk to us
0:21:57 > 0:22:00"and we might be able to form an effective partnership."
0:22:00 > 0:22:04Sometimes it might be as simple as saying, "I understand you're not happy with your relationship,
0:22:04 > 0:22:07"why don't you come and talk to us and we'll see if we can make you happy?"
0:22:07 > 0:22:11We weren't evil, we weren't wicked, we weren't illegal
0:22:11 > 0:22:16but we were subtle and we were clever and we were sophisticated and we did mad things.
0:22:16 > 0:22:22And Saatchi and Saatchi front man Tim Bell knew what clients expected from their ad man.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26They wanted him to embody the lifestyle they'd heard about.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29This lifestyle became a 24-hour commitment.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33# Golden years, gold... #
0:22:33 > 0:22:37They've got to look smart, always be handsome and funny,
0:22:37 > 0:22:42they're supposed to be good at lunch, they've got to have a fantastic repertoire of good restaurants,
0:22:42 > 0:22:44know a good wine, a good lobster,
0:22:44 > 0:22:49go to rugby matches, cricket matches, spend a weekend with a client,
0:22:49 > 0:22:53be absolutely courteous and charming, know the wife.
0:22:53 > 0:22:55The show is very important.
0:22:55 > 0:22:58When the client comes in he expects to see beautiful girls,
0:22:58 > 0:23:01handsome men, he expects to be uplifted.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09I mean the famous line about Tim was, dogs would be cross the road to be patted by him.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12And he was remarkable at talking to people and I think he was
0:23:12 > 0:23:19a PR person extraordinary and I think that's how he succeeded with the brothers, you know,
0:23:19 > 0:23:22in the sense that Morris was the businessman,
0:23:22 > 0:23:25Charlie was an outstanding creative man and I think
0:23:25 > 0:23:29Tim just made the whole thing work together with the clients and things like that,
0:23:29 > 0:23:31so it was a good triumvirate.
0:23:31 > 0:23:36I used to get up in the morning and imagine that somebody said, "Turn over, action."
0:23:36 > 0:23:39Rather than getting up and behaving normally.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43And most of the people in the business who were successful
0:23:43 > 0:23:46actually wanted to be larger than life,
0:23:46 > 0:23:50people pretended to be eccentric even if they weren't, some were.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54And people like to live in that sort of visible milieu.
0:23:54 > 0:23:59You went to restaurants that famous people went to, drove around in large cars,
0:23:59 > 0:24:02you wore smart suits made by Doug Haywood,
0:24:02 > 0:24:07and I mean you generally behaved as though you were what you weren't,
0:24:07 > 0:24:11which is very glamorous and very fashionable and very rich.
0:24:11 > 0:24:16It's very odd, I don't even know your name but after this one Campari and soda I feel I almost know you.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19May I freshen your glass?
0:24:20 > 0:24:23- Soda, of course? - COCKNEY ACCENT: No. Lemonade.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27Campari and lemonade.
0:24:27 > 0:24:29Yeah, nice colour, innit?
0:24:29 > 0:24:34Campari. With soda, with lemonade, with tonic, but always with pleasure.
0:24:34 > 0:24:36Were you truly wafted here from paradise?
0:24:36 > 0:24:39No, Luton airport.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42While Tim Bell was the charming frontman for Saatchi and Saatchi,
0:24:42 > 0:24:46the famously reclusive Charles was the company's business spin doctor.
0:24:46 > 0:24:52He made the company seriously famous in its world by feeding good news stories to Campaign,
0:24:52 > 0:24:54advertising's leading trade magazine.
0:24:54 > 0:25:00Whenever he had a story he would wait until - whenever it was - just before the campaign was going to press,
0:25:00 > 0:25:03and he would phone up the editor personally
0:25:03 > 0:25:07and he would give them not only a story about what they had done
0:25:07 > 0:25:12but how probably some of their rivals had failed to do this and lost that and,
0:25:12 > 0:25:18and so he would become, he would become Campaign's kind of leading throat.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21And yeah, by doing that there would be, week after week,
0:25:21 > 0:25:27stories about Saatchi does this, Saatchi wins that, Saatchi new billing, Saatchi new ad,
0:25:27 > 0:25:33and they used Campaign as a springboard into the rest of the national media.
0:25:33 > 0:25:40And it's so effective and so deeply effective, that to this day if you stop and ask a man in the street
0:25:40 > 0:25:47to name an advertising agency, nine times out of ten they would say, Saatchi and Saatchi.
0:25:49 > 0:25:55As Saatchi and Saatchi built their brand, creativity, lifestyle, business success,
0:25:55 > 0:26:03British advertising began to rival, even threaten the New York agencies that had inspired it in the 1960s.
0:26:03 > 0:26:05There are those who would argue that the best ads now
0:26:05 > 0:26:09are being produced from London, I'd love your reaction to that.
0:26:09 > 0:26:11I agree. I give it to you.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14London does produce some of the best advertising around
0:26:14 > 0:26:17and perhaps some of it is better than we do here on Madison Avenue.
0:26:17 > 0:26:23I saw some advertising from England just recently and I was so amazed.
0:26:23 > 0:26:29I saw a commercial for Hovis bread, was it? I don't know.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32And beautifully shot.
0:26:32 > 0:26:34Didn't make any sense to me at all.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38'Last stop on t'road will be Old Ma Peggerty's place.
0:26:38 > 0:26:43''Twas like taking bread to the top of the world.
0:26:43 > 0:26:45''Twas a grand ride back though.
0:26:45 > 0:26:50'I knew baker'd have kettle on and doorsteps of 'ot Hovis ready.'
0:26:50 > 0:26:56British ad men were raising the bar internationally with the scale and ambition of their work.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59Commercials were becoming increasingly epic.
0:27:23 > 0:27:28We went to Arizona in order to get perfect hot weather
0:27:28 > 0:27:30because it was a film set in the desert
0:27:30 > 0:27:31and as soon as we got there
0:27:31 > 0:27:34it started to rain for the first time in many years.
0:27:34 > 0:27:37And it rained and it rained and it rained.
0:27:37 > 0:27:41And Frank Lowe, who was there, luckily, he was there
0:27:41 > 0:27:46with his toy tiger, he had it under his arm all the time, quite an eccentric character, this Frank.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50Stuffed tiger, it was called Tiger... Tigger.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53He always talked to Tigger, "Is it going to rain today, Tigger?
0:27:53 > 0:27:55"No, I think it will be all right today."
0:27:55 > 0:27:56But it wasn't all right.
0:27:56 > 0:28:02Every day it rained and flash floods, we were locked into the hotel because of floods,
0:28:02 > 0:28:05and he had to ring his client every evening and say,
0:28:05 > 0:28:09"We didn't shoot today, Mr Client, we need more money."
0:28:09 > 0:28:14And after about a week, the client just said, "Frank, don't ring us again,
0:28:14 > 0:28:16"just come back with a film."
0:28:16 > 0:28:21So Frank had the ability to go on and on until we finished and we did, we came back
0:28:21 > 0:28:27with a film, vastly over budget, but we produced the film that now is the sort of legendary film.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31DRAMATIC MUSIC
0:29:02 > 0:29:06Ad men were creating work that looked like the movies, made by people like Puttnam,
0:29:06 > 0:29:13Parker, Hudson, and Ridley Scott, who went on to have Hollywood careers.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27But the biggest symbolic coup for New Adland's reputation
0:29:27 > 0:29:31as a power in Britain came when the Conservative Party bought into it.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36Saatchi and Saatchi won the Tories' 1979 general election count.
0:29:36 > 0:29:40For the first time a British advertising agency
0:29:40 > 0:29:45was central to a real power push, selling a would-be new government.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49# I wanna be elected... #
0:29:50 > 0:29:55Had you asked me here to speak to you a year hence,
0:29:55 > 0:30:00I should have been able to tell you whether it does pay to advertise.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03APPLAUSE
0:30:10 > 0:30:13For many people's sake, I hope it does.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17The Saatchi's self-promotion had paid off.
0:30:17 > 0:30:23The top Tories really believed advertising mattered and that they were the best agency in Britain.
0:30:24 > 0:30:29I think that Charles Saatchi had a reputation
0:30:29 > 0:30:32for the very best
0:30:32 > 0:30:35creative innovation and ideas.
0:30:35 > 0:30:37Morris Saatchi was a brilliant salesman.
0:30:37 > 0:30:42They happened to be a formidable combination and built an incredible business.
0:30:42 > 0:30:48It was Tim Bell, Saatchi and Saatchi's front man, who got the job of selling to Margaret Thatcher.
0:30:48 > 0:30:53- She loved it. - It was one of those wonderful moments when you show somebody something
0:30:53 > 0:30:59and you know you don't need to do any sell because they've looked at it and it's absolutely what they wanted.
0:30:59 > 0:31:04One of the wonderful things about Mrs T is that she absolutely believes in expertise.
0:31:04 > 0:31:10If she hires somebody as an expert she doesn't double-guess them, she doesn't ignore them, she lets them
0:31:10 > 0:31:14be the expert and she's always said this to me and it's still true,
0:31:14 > 0:31:16if you hire a plumber you let the plumber do the plumbing,
0:31:16 > 0:31:20you don't tell the plumber how to do the plumbing, you just get on with it.
0:31:20 > 0:31:22And so to some extent, if we said to her,
0:31:22 > 0:31:24"This is a great advertisement",
0:31:24 > 0:31:26she accepted that it was.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29'In a word, Britain is going backwards.
0:31:29 > 0:31:30SOUND OF CLOCK RUNNING DOWN
0:31:32 > 0:31:35'How have we got into this state?'
0:31:36 > 0:31:40What Charles and Morris achieved was going to happen, it's just that
0:31:40 > 0:31:43they happened to be at the right moment with the right client.
0:31:43 > 0:31:47'Which means a dole queue that would stretch from London to Edinburgh.'
0:31:47 > 0:31:50I remember conversations with the Labour Party.
0:31:50 > 0:31:52It just was not prepared to take that chance.
0:31:52 > 0:31:55I got on very well with Harold Wilson who was a lovely man,
0:31:55 > 0:32:00but Harold Wilson's idea was that advertising people were not only below the salt,
0:32:00 > 0:32:02you didn't really associate with them.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05It was Thatcher and her people around her had the courage
0:32:05 > 0:32:10to not only bring them the other side of the salt but actually embrace them.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13Excuse me, is this the queue to the 50p stores?
0:32:13 > 0:32:17Oh, no, this is the queue for serious operations.
0:32:17 > 0:32:19Is this the queue for the 50p stores?
0:32:19 > 0:32:2350p? Haven't you heard of inflation?
0:32:23 > 0:32:25Tell you what I don't want to see.
0:32:25 > 0:32:28- What's that?- Labour in power again.
0:32:28 > 0:32:30Labour In Power... Was that the Marx Brothers?
0:32:30 > 0:32:32No. Another bunch of comedians.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36Up to that point political advertising was complete rubbish
0:32:36 > 0:32:38and Saatchi and Saatchi's wasn't that great,
0:32:38 > 0:32:41it was just a lot better than political people had done before.
0:32:41 > 0:32:45The difference is the Tories took the chance
0:32:45 > 0:32:50on using a creative approach to certain things.
0:32:52 > 0:32:58'Do you remember what it was like at the beginning of '79?'
0:32:58 > 0:33:03This mixture of advertising and politics was new and controversial.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07The brothers, as ever, stayed low-profile, but Adland's public mouth,
0:33:07 > 0:33:12Peter Marsh, was always there to comment.
0:33:12 > 0:33:16You come from this puritanical school which says, "I must decide what people have."
0:33:16 > 0:33:19- No, they have decided.- "They mustn't have their freedom of choice."- No.
0:33:19 > 0:33:21- "Let us tell them." - THEY must decide, not you.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24If they want to buy cat meat, let them buy it!
0:33:24 > 0:33:27APPLAUSE
0:33:28 > 0:33:33The old Labour Party was fiercely critical, but just two years
0:33:33 > 0:33:38and two election defeats later, the ad man had won over the sceptics.
0:33:38 > 0:33:42Leading director Hugh Hudson was hired to reposition
0:33:42 > 0:33:46Labour's Neil Kinnock as a dynamic, strong leader.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49SLOW FLOWING VERSION OF "Ode To Joy" by Beethoven
0:33:52 > 0:33:56'I think that the real privilege of being strong
0:33:56 > 0:34:01'is the power that it gives you to help people who are not strong.
0:34:01 > 0:34:08'I think the real privilege of being fit and bright and young,'
0:34:08 > 0:34:11strong, is the ability that that gives you
0:34:11 > 0:34:16to give others a helping hand when they're not strong, when they're old,
0:34:16 > 0:34:19or disabled, or poor, or in need.
0:34:19 > 0:34:24And it isn't a sentimental attitude, I think it's a way of proving
0:34:24 > 0:34:27just what your strength amounts to.
0:34:30 > 0:34:32It didn't work that time.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35They needed to change the product first.
0:34:35 > 0:34:38MUSIC: "Save A Prayer" by Duran Duran
0:34:40 > 0:34:45Advertising alone couldn't stop Thatcherism in its tracks.
0:34:45 > 0:34:49In fact, it was already at the heart of the government's policy making.
0:34:49 > 0:34:53The Conservative plan for American-style popular capitalism,
0:34:53 > 0:34:56for instance, turning Britain into a nation of shareholders.
0:34:56 > 0:34:59The ad man was called in to make it happen.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04What was your feeling about privatisation campaigns?
0:35:04 > 0:35:07I think that it was immensely sensible.
0:35:07 > 0:35:13After all, you were trying to create awareness
0:35:13 > 0:35:16of a revolution in attitudes.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20Here you were taking giant state-owned industries
0:35:20 > 0:35:26and persuading, you hoped, millions of one's citizens to think of buying
0:35:26 > 0:35:31the shares, to join the share-owning democracy,
0:35:31 > 0:35:35and to put their savings into that sort of activity.
0:35:35 > 0:35:41So using all the commercial abilities of the marketing world
0:35:41 > 0:35:44was self-evidently desirable.
0:35:44 > 0:35:46One would have been crazy not to do it.
0:35:46 > 0:35:48- Tell you what, Duncan... - What's that?
0:35:48 > 0:35:52All the risks and complexities and small print of private shareholding
0:35:52 > 0:35:59were bypassed in campaigns that used memorable catch phrases to whip up interest in the big privatisations.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02- Yes, lass?- Garibaldis, please.
0:36:02 > 0:36:07These British Gas shares, did you know they'll be publishing their prospectus on November 25th?
0:36:07 > 0:36:10- I didn't.- If you want to apply you can reserve one over the phone.
0:36:10 > 0:36:13If you see Sid, tell him, will you?
0:36:15 > 0:36:17The great line is scarcity and value,
0:36:17 > 0:36:20the purpose of all communication on privatisations
0:36:20 > 0:36:22was to communicate scarcity and value.
0:36:22 > 0:36:28If you don't buy it now you might miss out, and there's going to be a fantastic benefit coming from it.
0:36:28 > 0:36:33That was the strategy and it's the natural strategy for all share sales of any kind.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36It was also a political strategy behind it which was to make it
0:36:36 > 0:36:40popular amongst the people so they would like the idea of privatisation.
0:36:40 > 0:36:45And I think there was also an argument that this was popular capitalism,
0:36:45 > 0:36:48as opposed to corporate capitalism, if you like,
0:36:48 > 0:36:52therefore it had to be expressed in very ordinary language.
0:36:52 > 0:36:54The famous Sid campaign is a classic example of it.
0:36:54 > 0:36:56How long are you staying?
0:36:56 > 0:37:00- About a week.- Well, I hope you've a prospectus if you want to apply for British Gas shares.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03What? Oh, it'll wait.
0:37:03 > 0:37:04Oh, it canny.
0:37:04 > 0:37:08Your application form has to be in by 10am on 1st December.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11- I'll best be off then, love. - If you see Sid, will you tell him?
0:37:11 > 0:37:13Aye.
0:37:13 > 0:37:18Nobody selling shares in a large corporation to institutions would do a Sid campaign
0:37:18 > 0:37:21but if you were selling shares to ordinary people, you would.
0:37:21 > 0:37:26And I think advertising had a fantastically important role to play.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32The campaigns paid off and, awash with cash, newly floated companies
0:37:32 > 0:37:37like British Airways offered themselves up to the ad man for ever more lavish treatment.
0:37:51 > 0:37:55The face commercial I made for Saatchi's for British Airways
0:37:55 > 0:37:59was a six-week campaign of strategising how you get
0:37:59 > 0:38:03all these people together to do what they had to do.
0:38:03 > 0:38:09A thousand extras at the end and each element of the face was made up of about 150.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13The world's favourite airline
0:38:13 > 0:38:16brings 24 million people...
0:38:17 > 0:38:18..together.
0:38:18 > 0:38:21And a very expensive ad. They don't make ads like that any more.
0:38:21 > 0:38:23That was a million two, I think.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25Pounds. Then.
0:38:30 > 0:38:35Commanding huge budgets and attributed with real political power too,
0:38:35 > 0:38:38ad men were getting very confident.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42Frank Lowe even felt he could diva-ishly resign the Ford account
0:38:42 > 0:38:44if they didn't like his ideas.
0:38:44 > 0:38:46BLEEP off!
0:38:46 > 0:38:49If you don't like our ads, don't come to our house.
0:38:49 > 0:38:53So they left. Ford's left.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56You know, he fired them, he fired the Ford Motor Company.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59But immediately, within about three months, he'd got Fiat.
0:38:59 > 0:39:03And Fiat were prepared to go the journey with Frank and take the risk.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09# Rush rush to the yeyo
0:39:09 > 0:39:13# Buzz buzz, gimme yeyo
0:39:13 > 0:39:17# Rush rush, got the yeyo
0:39:17 > 0:39:18# Yo, yo, no, no, yeyo... #
0:39:23 > 0:39:26With typical ad man bravado, Lowe persuaded Fiat
0:39:26 > 0:39:29to buy the whole News At Ten advertising break.
0:39:29 > 0:39:34That was the top slot then and it meant a guaranteed national talking point the next day.
0:39:34 > 0:39:39# He's a real speed demon
0:39:39 > 0:39:42# He's one of a kind... #
0:39:42 > 0:39:49The ad man was now wielding vast budgets and this began to be reflected in client entertainment.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57There was one man in the 80s who spent £600,000
0:39:57 > 0:40:01on business expenses and entertaining in one year.
0:40:01 > 0:40:08That was one man. And his rationale was, "We fly the clients to Ascot in helicopters,
0:40:08 > 0:40:14"we give them champagne and chauffeurs wherever we go", and it was a kind of business-winning tour.
0:40:14 > 0:40:18In lots of ways it worked, I mean it did win them business.
0:40:18 > 0:40:19And so those things were legitimate.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22But you know nowadays it would be called bribery.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27In the 60s and 70s, the new ad men were ahead of the game,
0:40:27 > 0:40:32but in the 80s they seemed caught up in the loadsamoney world,
0:40:32 > 0:40:37not distanced enough, bound in to everything that was riding for a fall.
0:40:37 > 0:40:40The ad industry by the 80s had become far more excessive,
0:40:40 > 0:40:42interestingly, than the film industry.
0:40:42 > 0:40:47The film industry maintained a very, very tight grip of finances and professionalism.
0:40:47 > 0:40:52The advertising agency guy - I'm sure I'm going to get criticised for this! -
0:40:52 > 0:40:57became pretty sloppy and pretty indulgent and pretty inward looking.
0:41:00 > 0:41:04The growth targets for New Adland meant not just serving
0:41:04 > 0:41:09the global new money corporate world but being a master of the universe too.
0:41:14 > 0:41:20The seriously ambitious Saatchis led the way with their aggressive policy of mergers and acquisitions.
0:41:20 > 0:41:25# I've got the brains You've got the looks
0:41:25 > 0:41:29# Let's make lots of money
0:41:29 > 0:41:33# You've got the brawn I've got the brains
0:41:33 > 0:41:35# Let's make lots of... #
0:41:36 > 0:41:43Having dominated this country the next obvious step would be to dominate the world.
0:41:43 > 0:41:45How do you do that?
0:41:45 > 0:41:51Well, you can't go and grow your businesses from scratch in every 180 countries, you buy them.
0:41:51 > 0:41:55So in a way their feeling was, it doesn't matter if you pay a bit over the odds
0:41:55 > 0:42:00because it will grow and it will look all right in ten years because of all this growth.
0:42:00 > 0:42:06And so people used to laugh at the amounts that the Saatchis paid.
0:42:06 > 0:42:09I spoke to one man, he said "We couldn't believe our luck,
0:42:09 > 0:42:14"when they came along, we were a fat, lazy, complacent old agency.
0:42:14 > 0:42:17"We were quite big, Saatchis came along, paid way over the odds
0:42:17 > 0:42:22"and you know, we just sort of laughed into the sunset."
0:42:22 > 0:42:25MUSIC: "Hungry Like The Wolf" by Duran Duran
0:42:30 > 0:42:37The excess reflected the huge financial value the City placed on British advertising.
0:42:41 > 0:42:48Adland appeared to have reached the top but it thought it could go even further.
0:42:48 > 0:42:52If advertising men saw themselves as part architects of Thatcherism, now
0:42:52 > 0:42:56they wanted some of the real power and the real rewards, the big stuff.
0:42:56 > 0:43:01Instead of just pitching services to the corporate world,
0:43:01 > 0:43:04they started to see themselves as its peers.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07Couldn't they run corporate Britain better?
0:43:07 > 0:43:09The City was awash with money then
0:43:09 > 0:43:13and Adland seemed like a very bankable sector.
0:43:13 > 0:43:16But it was actually a bridge too far.
0:43:16 > 0:43:20# And I'm hungry like the wolf... #
0:43:22 > 0:43:28In September 1987, only months after helping secure the Thatcher government a third election victory,
0:43:28 > 0:43:31the Saatchis arranged a meeting at the Midland bank
0:43:31 > 0:43:35that would mark a watershed in perceptions of the ad man.
0:43:38 > 0:43:44They weren't pitching to advertise for the Midland, they wanted to bid for the bank itself.
0:43:46 > 0:43:50And what made them think that they could possibly run
0:43:50 > 0:43:56a serious financial institution like the Midland bank which had something like
0:43:56 > 0:43:5975 billion dollars in assets?
0:43:59 > 0:44:03What made them think that they could run that properly?
0:44:03 > 0:44:06Well, hubris has to be the world.
0:44:06 > 0:44:11Frankly the thought that an advertising agency could buy
0:44:11 > 0:44:16a major clearing bank, you know, delusions of grandeur.
0:44:16 > 0:44:21So I think probably that was over the top.
0:44:21 > 0:44:22The bid was rejected immediately.
0:44:22 > 0:44:29But more importantly, in the eyes of the City, the ad man was seen to have overstepped the mark.
0:44:29 > 0:44:30They reached too far
0:44:30 > 0:44:35and people decided they weren't going to do that so it was stopped.
0:44:36 > 0:44:38- It was stopped?- Mmm.
0:44:40 > 0:44:46I mean there are times when people look at things and say, they're great
0:44:46 > 0:44:50and I love them but they're getting a bit too powerful,
0:44:50 > 0:44:54or, they're getting a bit too involved in too many things
0:44:54 > 0:44:59and I think the Establishment decided it was time their reach narrowed.
0:45:01 > 0:45:05This setback for the Saatchis was perhaps the first true reversal
0:45:05 > 0:45:08the baby-boomer ad man had ever experienced.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12The modern shaman was now being put back in his box.
0:45:12 > 0:45:14He was being told to mind his own business,
0:45:14 > 0:45:18and when he did, he saw that his business was in big trouble.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27When he'd worked for privately owned agencies
0:45:27 > 0:45:31the ad man had never really been required to keep to the bottom line.
0:45:31 > 0:45:37Instead, increasing amounts of money had been thrown at marketing with comparatively little accountability.
0:45:37 > 0:45:39Now he was trying to be a corporate player
0:45:39 > 0:45:44but he failed to recognise that the rules of the game were different.
0:45:44 > 0:45:50The newly expanded and merged, publicly quoted advertising companies were starting to look
0:45:50 > 0:45:53over-valued and financially unsustainable.
0:45:53 > 0:45:56The ad man was seen as a bit bloated.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59When recession hit something had to give.
0:45:59 > 0:46:03The world's biggest advertising group, Saatchi and Saatchi,
0:46:03 > 0:46:06has announced a drop in profits of more than £100m.
0:46:06 > 0:46:09The fall comes at the end of a bad year for the company,
0:46:09 > 0:46:11but the size of it still shocked the City.
0:46:11 > 0:46:17It's going to take all their advertising and PR skills to convince people they can bounce back
0:46:17 > 0:46:21after a week that has seen Saatchi and Saatchi looking vulnerable and all too fallible.
0:46:23 > 0:46:29Anxious investors were putting a price on everything and the ad man's big talk suddenly looked like puff.
0:46:29 > 0:46:34He was only as valuable as the price people were prepared to pay for his business,
0:46:34 > 0:46:36which in a recession was not a great deal.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39'After 19 years of phenomenal profits growth,
0:46:39 > 0:46:41'the chickens finally came home to roost.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44'This week profits dropped to only £22m
0:46:44 > 0:46:49'and after tax and other costs, the company actually lost £58m.'
0:46:49 > 0:46:56When the downturn came, all found it extremely difficult to readjust.
0:46:56 > 0:47:00There are exceptions, John Hegarty did a brilliant job, particularly John,
0:47:00 > 0:47:05but many of them found it very, very difficult to readjust to tougher times.
0:47:06 > 0:47:09The ad man was now on the back foot.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13By the early 90s the Saatchis had been ousted from their own company,
0:47:13 > 0:47:17with Charles Saatchi taking solace in his growing art collection.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21The flamboyant Peter Marsh, struggling to win new business in this stricter age,
0:47:21 > 0:47:25was forced out of his company too.
0:47:25 > 0:47:29Frank Lowe, who produced many of the most expensive campaigns,
0:47:29 > 0:47:33found clients less prepared to trust his ambitious ideas.
0:47:33 > 0:47:37And Tim Bell discovered that with the Thatcher revolution over
0:47:37 > 0:47:40he too could no longer exert the same influence.
0:47:41 > 0:47:45From thinking he'd joined the new masters of the universe,
0:47:45 > 0:47:48Mr Ad Man now looked as if he'd fatally overreached himself,
0:47:48 > 0:47:53lost the plot, and that gave the opportunity for a new kind
0:47:53 > 0:47:56of advertising man, one who was a real global,
0:47:56 > 0:47:59big corporation bottom line manager.
0:48:00 > 0:48:06The City had decided that you didn't make a creative industry profitable by putting the creatives in charge.
0:48:06 > 0:48:12What advertising needed now was managers and accountants, safe pairs of hands.
0:48:12 > 0:48:18It was almost as though the industry had gone full circle back to the 1950s.
0:48:23 > 0:48:26I suppose I got out before it started to revert back
0:48:26 > 0:48:29to how it was before we started it.
0:48:29 > 0:48:32Because I think whatever that period of time might have been,
0:48:32 > 0:48:36it probably never was more than like a decade or 15 years maybe
0:48:36 > 0:48:41where the creative work actually was paramount and the creative department
0:48:41 > 0:48:46and the writers and the art directors and the commercials directors were the most important people.
0:48:46 > 0:48:52I think then it reverted back to the guys in suits who then took back
0:48:52 > 0:48:55their world and they've kept it ever since.
0:48:57 > 0:49:01Enter Sir Martin Sorrell, the Saatchis' one time finance director
0:49:01 > 0:49:04and now by far Britain's most successful advertising boss.
0:49:04 > 0:49:11With his company, WPP, worth 8.6 billion, he's vastly more successful commercially
0:49:11 > 0:49:14than his former employers ever were.
0:49:14 > 0:49:17Today's a golden era.
0:49:17 > 0:49:19I mean, the fact that you know that we have
0:49:19 > 0:49:23a turnover of 60 billion, that we have revenues of 12 billion,
0:49:23 > 0:49:26that, you know, we're reasonably profitable
0:49:26 > 0:49:30but I'd like to have even better margins, sure I would.
0:49:30 > 0:49:32I'd love to have 40% Google margins.
0:49:32 > 0:49:39But that's not to be and we have 15% and we make a very decent and honourable living.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43He worked for the Saatchis, he saw what they were trying to do.
0:49:43 > 0:49:45Saw that actually they had a great opportunity
0:49:45 > 0:49:49but they weren't doing it very well and that if somebody came along
0:49:49 > 0:49:53and did the same thing, only properly, they'd clean up. And how right he was.
0:49:53 > 0:49:58If you were having a go at me you would say I was a bean counter or a chartered accountant.
0:49:58 > 0:49:59I like counting beans.
0:49:59 > 0:50:06Sorrell knows the last thing his clients want to see is a flash, high-living, high-spending showman.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09The fact that he is the most famous person in the business is really
0:50:09 > 0:50:13what I've been trying to say about the move from being famous for the work you do,
0:50:13 > 0:50:16for being famous for the business success that you have.
0:50:16 > 0:50:21He is a businessman and he is rightly admired by everybody as a very, very successful businessman.
0:50:21 > 0:50:25He's not the front face of the advertising industry in the way
0:50:25 > 0:50:28that Frank Lowe and Charlie Saatchi and to some extent
0:50:28 > 0:50:31me others were, in that golden age.
0:50:31 > 0:50:35I'm not saying any of that as a criticism of what Martin's done,
0:50:35 > 0:50:40but it is maybe the point that the advertising industry's now regarded as a business,
0:50:40 > 0:50:45which is jolly good and very important, whereas it used to be regarded as a piece of fun.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49I think this is much overworked, you know, that 25, 30 years ago
0:50:49 > 0:50:52there were a bunch of personalities, today they're all gone.
0:50:52 > 0:50:59I mean that's an easy shot, right? And that's probably the shot of somebody, you know,
0:50:59 > 0:51:03who's thinking, "I'm over the hill, I'm past it
0:51:03 > 0:51:07"and I wish we could return, you know, to the good old days."
0:51:07 > 0:51:09I think it's nonsense.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18The rise of the ad man was built on the cultivation of a myth,
0:51:18 > 0:51:23that he was privy to secret knowledge and he was the master of the voodoo arts.
0:51:23 > 0:51:27But today we think we've seen behind the magician's curtains,
0:51:27 > 0:51:30we feel we know how the tricks are done.
0:51:32 > 0:51:35With companies' own in-house marketing operations
0:51:35 > 0:51:38now more sophisticated than in the ad man's heyday
0:51:38 > 0:51:40it's more a buyers' market.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43The client's back in the driving seat.
0:51:43 > 0:51:46Before it used to be all we lived for is the ads.
0:51:46 > 0:51:50Now, it's make the profits and if you can do some nice ads along the way
0:51:50 > 0:51:53but whatever you do, do not lose the client.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56And so it turned into, when the client said,
0:51:56 > 0:52:00"What time is it?" you said, "What time would you like it to be?"
0:52:00 > 0:52:05And that is a huge difference and you wouldn't stand up for what you believed.
0:52:05 > 0:52:09You would kind of stand up but in the end you would see the client's point of view
0:52:09 > 0:52:13and so the client was kept but the ads weren't necessarily as good.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20The defining characteristic of the ad man's golden age,
0:52:20 > 0:52:23the reason we remember the work so fondly
0:52:23 > 0:52:27is that he sold to us in a particularly British way.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31He used our national culture and our sense of humour
0:52:31 > 0:52:35to turn advertising into popular entertainment.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38But this could only work in the unique media environment of the time.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41With just one commercial TV channel until the 1980s,
0:52:41 > 0:52:47Britain was essentially a single national audience with shared cultural references.
0:52:47 > 0:52:51Viewers would be charmed rather than baffled by a Yorkshire accent.
0:52:51 > 0:52:53My name's Dan.
0:52:53 > 0:52:57This here's me brother, Ben. Thou're a bit shy, ain't thou, Ben?
0:52:57 > 0:53:01Oh, he's a shy lad, but he's great at inventing things
0:53:01 > 0:53:03with Birds Eye beef burgers, ain't thou, Ben?
0:53:04 > 0:53:07- I mean to say...- That strategy looks borderline quaint now.
0:53:07 > 0:53:10Today we all play in a much wider market place.
0:53:10 > 0:53:12I'll tell you summat...
0:53:12 > 0:53:15'Many more of our briefs now are global briefs'
0:53:15 > 0:53:18and that's the big change.
0:53:18 > 0:53:21If people say to me, "What's the big change in the last 20 years",
0:53:21 > 0:53:25I would have said, you know, in the mid-80s, 10% of what I did
0:53:25 > 0:53:33had an international element to it, whereas today almost 90% of what I do has an international element to it.
0:53:35 > 0:53:38MUSIC: "She's a Rainbow" by The Rolling Stones
0:53:49 > 0:53:51Big idea advertising today has to cross nations,
0:53:51 > 0:53:53cultures, even languages.
0:53:53 > 0:53:59The brand message has to be simple and immediate without too much cultural baggage.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02# Coming, colours everywhere
0:54:02 > 0:54:04# She combs her hair
0:54:04 > 0:54:07# She's like a rainbow... #
0:54:07 > 0:54:09You know, I look at the Sony Bravia work and I use that
0:54:09 > 0:54:13as an example of how somebody's created a fantastic piece
0:54:13 > 0:54:17of global advertising that's really genuinely fresh, genuinely different,
0:54:17 > 0:54:22and captured all the awards going.
0:54:22 > 0:54:24So it can be done.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27It just requires a different way of thinking.
0:54:27 > 0:54:34# She's like a rainbow Coming, colours in the air
0:54:34 > 0:54:37# Oh, everywhere
0:54:37 > 0:54:40# She comes in colours... #
0:54:47 > 0:54:49Not surprisingly, some of our distinguished ad men
0:54:49 > 0:54:53have mixed feelings about where British advertising has ended up.
0:54:53 > 0:54:57- What's it like today? What's the milieu like?- Boring.
0:54:59 > 0:55:05I think...the lifestyle has become dull.
0:55:05 > 0:55:08I don't think they enjoy themselves in the way that we did.
0:55:08 > 0:55:12I don't think they laugh at themselves, we roared with laughter all day long
0:55:12 > 0:55:16about what we'd got away with and things we sold people, these famous stories.
0:55:16 > 0:55:21Like people like Pat Dolan who when he was giving a pitch when the client fell asleep
0:55:21 > 0:55:24he got up and walked to the middle of the table,
0:55:24 > 0:55:26held his tie in the air and cut it in half,
0:55:26 > 0:55:31so that the client would wake up, and then went back and sat down and carried on with the presentation.
0:55:31 > 0:55:35Those sort of things were daily occurrences when I was a kid in the business.
0:55:35 > 0:55:37Now you never hear any of those stories.
0:55:37 > 0:55:40I couldn't turn around and say, "Where is the next Frank Lowe,
0:55:40 > 0:55:44"where is the next Tim Bell, where is the next Peter Marsh?"
0:55:44 > 0:55:45I really couldn't.
0:55:45 > 0:55:48I don't think they're being born at the moment
0:55:48 > 0:55:51and history will look back on this era and have a reason for it.
0:55:51 > 0:55:55As you get older you suddenly, "Oh, wasn't it so great when we were doing these things?"
0:55:55 > 0:55:58I don't know if that's so actually.
0:55:58 > 0:56:03I think that nothing had gone before when we were doing it and so
0:56:03 > 0:56:07it wasn't difficult to stand out actually.
0:56:07 > 0:56:11And then suddenly I think that the whole of the standards got better and better
0:56:11 > 0:56:15and I think that overall the standards are very high at the moment,
0:56:15 > 0:56:18particularly from a technological point of view,
0:56:18 > 0:56:21and so I think that if you saw some of our old commercials
0:56:21 > 0:56:25you'd probably go, "Oh, God, how did that win an award?"
0:56:25 > 0:56:29Some of the others stand out, would still be at the best on TV at this moment in time.
0:56:29 > 0:56:34MUSIC: "Make Me Smile" by Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel
0:57:21 > 0:57:23Cut, print, super.
0:57:23 > 0:57:27Bloody good take. The cow was perfect, everything was right.
0:57:27 > 0:57:33There's more money spent on advertising than ever now but the business has changed.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36The kind of ad man we've been talking about -
0:57:36 > 0:57:41flamboyant, overreaching, mostly not very corporate, has gone.
0:57:41 > 0:57:48He was never as important again to his clients and to our culture after the 90s.
0:57:48 > 0:57:52So the conditions that created this 30-year opportunity
0:57:52 > 0:57:57for a uniquely British kind of ad man really don't exist any more.
0:57:57 > 0:57:59It's a different world.
0:57:59 > 0:58:02MUSIC: "Sympathy For The Devil" by Guns N' Roses
0:58:28 > 0:58:30Subtitles by Red Bee Media
0:58:30 > 0:58:33Email Subtitling@bbc.co.uk