Beattie’s joke is a lead balloon

Before Trevor Beattie left TBWA he was dishing out end-of-year awards to the creative teams adding humorous anecdotes and generally trying to deflate the agency’s creative egos at the same time as inflating his own.

First, second and third prize for crappiest ad of the year went to a Bristol & West campaign. When Beattie called upon Susanna Hailstone to pick up the award she turned to Beattie and said: “Perhaps you might like to give it to the client, she is standing next to me.” The client, who luckily had a sense of humour, promptly got up and received the award from the red-faced Beattie. Oops! Needless to say the account did not stay with TBWA for long.