The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Boss attacks his firm for Falklands ad
Businessman Sir Martin Sorrell has condemned his own firm for an Argentinian advert showing an Olympic hopeful training on a British war memorial in the Falklands.
The head of communications giant WPP branded the TV clip “totally unacceptable” and professed himself “appalled and embarrassed”.
The 90-second ad, which says the athlete is preparing forlondon2012on“argentine soil”, wasthe brainchild of WPP’S agency Youngandrubicam(y&r). Argentina hockey captain Fernando Zylberberg is seen running and stretching in the Falklands capital, Port Stanley, and exercising on the island’s Great Warmemorial, which honours British sailors who died in World War I.
Y&rsaid ithadasked the Argentinian government to pull the ad. Its global chief executive David Sable said it was impossible for the agency to see everything produced by its branches around the world, but stressed that clear guidelines were in place.
The advert, reportedly bought by the government and broadcast after being rejected by various companies, calls the islands by their Argentinian name, the Malvinas, and carries the tagline: “To compete on British soil, we train on Argentinian soil.” It ends with the words: “Homage to the fallen and the veterans of themalvinas. Presidency of the Nation.”
Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague dismissed it as a “stunt” and accusedargentina of trying to misuse the games for political purposes.
“Argentina has had some diplomatic setbacks in the last few weeks,” he said. “They have failed at a Summit of the Americas to get other countries – in south and north America – to issue a declaration on the Falkland Islands.
“They are looking for one or two stunts to try and make up for that.”
Tory MP Andrew Murrison, a former Royal Navy surgeon, accused Argentine president Cristina Fernandezdekirchner of sinking to a “new low”.
He said: “Where sad, usually drunken, individuals have committed acts of disrespect to war memorials in the UK, they have rightly been vilified in the press and by their communities and subject to the wrath of the justice system.” It follows months of bickering between London and Buenos Aires on the issue of the islands.