LSD leaves Beeb staff high and dry

Now that the receiver has been called in to run Leagas Shafron Davis, the Diary believes it’s high time to reflect on that great agency’s contribution to the business.

Who, for example, can forget the staunch defence of the industry made by agency chairman Ron Leagas? Last month, he appeared on BBC2’s The Money Programme, trying to persuade the managers of Pizza Express that the chain could benefit from a bout of poster advertising. The pizza bosses were unimpressed by LSD’s efforts, and told them so in front of millions of viewers.

But one unkind soul has suggested that when The Money Programme’s researchers were looking for a suitable agency to take part in the mock pitch, they confused the beleaguered Leagas Shafron Davis with Leagas Delaney, which faces no such pecuniary embarrassment.

It is reminiscent of the famous, though probably apocryphal, tale about the Americans who bought London Bridge, believing it to be Tower Bridge.