Bacardi still a bitter taste in Kaye’s mouth

The shy, retiring and perfectly sane Tony Kaye continues to wage a one-man war against former employers Bacardi and McCann-Erickson.

You all know the background to this long and predictable story by now: Kaye gets an itsy bit upset at the refilming of the end to his new Bacardi ad, he “hides” the actors used, calls the client and agency rude names and proceeds to make funny phone calls to journalists bemoaning his “ill-treatment”.

Over the Christmas period Kaye was playing to the gallery again with his “let’s embarrass the enemy into capitulation” – or, in this case, pulling the ad – frolics.

Kaye flew to the UK from Los Angeles. Marvilla, the Dominican Republic boxer and Bacardi ad star, flew from somewhere else. And a ten-piece rap band flew down Howland Street on a flat-bed truck to McCann’s headquarters, where they “gave spirited voice to strong anti-Bacardi sentiments”.

The blurb says: “Things could not look worse for Bacardi and McCann if they’d strangled Father Christmas and shot Rudolf”. McCannites probably thought Father Christmas was being strangled as Kaye warbled away outside their building.