Robin travels back in time in the tardis

It’s amazing what people will do to make a pitch go with a bang. After reports last year that Saatchi & Saatchi had decked out its office as a jet liner to pitch for the British Airways account, news has reached the Diary of an even whackier stunt pulled by WCRS chief Robin Wight.

The WCRS supremo and all-round erstwhile advertising titan apparently misjudged the mood of the times when heading the pitch for the British Energy account – the thrustingly patriotic name chosen for the company set up to handle the privatisation of the nuclear industry.

To show he was in tune with a client with such scientific credentials Wight ordered a Dr Who time machine, a Tardis, built to take the client forward in time to the summer when the privatisation will take place – though WCRS denies rumours that Wight dressed up as the time traveller.

Now this might have done a few years ago when Wight, and indeed privatisations, were on a roll; then WCRS’s reputation for winning COI accounts was second to none. Now times have changed and Wight’s warped pitch was enough for British Energy to say no to WCRS and pass the task to Lowe Howard-Spink.