Ah so, that’s how TDA belts out the promos

Marketing Week’s readers are all-too familiar with tales of marketers getting the chop, but this one’s a (black) belter.

Art directors, planners and account handlers at direct marketing agency TDA had been pestering copywriter Stuart Richings, who studies traditional Japanese Wado-Ryu karate, to show them his best Jackie Chan impersonation for some time. But rather than breaking breezeblocks with his little finger or catching a bluebottle with a pair of chopsticks, the DM industry’s answer to Mr Miyagi hired the local gym to give an impromptu lesson to his colleagues.

The Diary reckons that, given this dedication to the art of self defence, TDA must be the hardest DM agency in the UK. Unless, of course, any of TDA’s rivals want to throw down the gauntlet and issue a challenge. If so, the Diary, donning a Don King hair-do, insists on ten per cent of the box office and a slice of the TV deal.