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Nissan, Man Utd, Status Quo: Quotes of the week

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

April 30, 2010 | 6 min read

It's been another busy week with Nissan heading south, Man Utd supporters lobbying the club's corporate sponsors and Status Quo designingwhisky bottles. Find out more with The Drum's quotes of the week.

"I have got a good relationship with Nissan and I have worked with them throughout my time with TBWA, even my job in LA [with Infiniti] included working with them, but the change in strategy has nothing to do with me."

Not me, guv. TBWA's UK chairman and former champion of the north west Robert Harwood-Matthews insists moving the Nissan account from the agency's Manchester office to London was not his call, but the client's.

"Are you willing to let the Glazers damage your brand the same way they are damaging Manchester United?"

The Manchester United Supporters Trust goes on the commercial offensive, telling the club's sponsors that they are "damaging their brand by association" by dealing with unpopular Reds owners The Glazer family.

“We signed a deal with Francis this year in Melbourne when he was touring Australia and as Chairman – and as ‘front man’ for the Glen Rossie brand – we believe he can help us reinvigorate sales not just in the UK but, as someone who has sold 118m records worldwide, overseas too."

Not marguerita time, more like whisky time. The chief exec in charge of Glen Rossie whisky introduces the brand's new chairman: Status Quo frontman Francis Rossi.

"Deciding to use agency A over Agency B because the MD prefers purple to blue is never going to ensure best value but it still happens…all too often."

Tom Foulkes, global head of marketing at engineering firm Buro Happold, hits out at the free-pitching system in his guest speech at the RAR Awards.

"The subject of his family and his marriage breakdown has been previously brought to public attention on several occasions and it would not in Ofcom's opinion have exceeded viewer expectations for questions on these subjects to be put to him in the context of a programme with a populist news agenda."

Sky News presenter Kay Burley might have made poor Peter Andre cry - but she didn't cross the line according to broadcaster Ofcom, even if almost 900 complainants said otherwise.

"Sure.. we've seen Dave in his kitchen, Gordon trying to empathise with working mums and Nick digging an allotment with his stunning wife but if political parties don't adopt an effective, engaging and message based marketing strategy in the last week of the campaign then they will, almost certainly, meet the pollsters predictions."

We're heading for a hung parliament because the main parties' marketing campaigns keep leaving us hanging, says Studio North's Kerry Dennison

"You would think that two large companies like Apple and Adobe would be able to work out a solution that would keep both parties happy, instead of releasing endless statements which have a go at each other.

Shantanu Narayen CEO of Adobe, hits backs at Apple's Steve Jobs who attacked Flash in an open letter.

"Our activists are already at full stretch and we have no spare finances to fund extra campaign material, so what we want to do is to raise enough extra funds to place newspaper adverts in a whole range of key target areas up and down the country.

BNP leader Nick Griffin appeals to his supporters to raise cash to launch a last ditch newspaper ad campain to woo Labour voters after Gordon Brown's gaffe earlier this week.

"We welcome a payment by results component in agency remuneration schemes as long as the key performance indicators are based on clear, easily understood and achievable targets, the client still has the money in their budget in case of success, and remains in the job long enough to authorise the payment. How likely is this in the multi-factorial settings in which most Government Departmental campaigns seek to change social behaviour, when the Minsters responsible are reshuffled even more frequently than commercial sector marketing directors, and budgets are usually up for grabs annually, and definitely every five years?

IPA boss Hamish Pringle gives the Conservative plan to pay its agencies by results a cautious welcome.

“I am looking forward to getting to know the Scottish market better. To this end I will effectively be based here full time for the next five weeks or so."

News International's Sandra Tinker was at the centre of a shock move this week which saw her take over sales for News Int titles in Scotland.

"The barcode is part of the livery of the car, it is not part of a subliminal advertising campaign."

Ferrari, bizarrely, is forced to refute claims that the design of its F1 car constitutes subliminal advertising. Its barcode design supposedly resembles a packet of cigarettes, with tobacco advertising banned from F1. If Derren Brown made F1 cars, they'd probably look something like this...

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