The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Sir Martin Sorrell Y&R

Argentina defies UK over Olympic TV ad shot in the Falklands

Author

By Noel Young, Correspondent

May 9, 2012 | 3 min read

Argentina is refusing to stop running a controversial TV ad made by Y&R in which an Argentine athlete secretly trains for the upcoming London Olympics - on the Falkland Islands.

The Argy athlete: tired out in the Falklands

This is despite angry complaints by Sir Martin Sorrell, boss of WPP which owns Y&R and by the British government.

In 1982 Britain and Argentina fought a war over ownership of the tiny islands, which Argentina calls the Malvinas.

The residents are determined to stay British. Argentina is determined to get its hands on the oil believed to lurk deep down in the waters surrounding the islands.

Sir Martin was quoted in UK media, including The Drum, saying he was "appalled and embarrassed" by the spot made by Y&R of Buenos Aires.

It got its first airing on the 30th anniversary of Britain sinking Argentina's General Belgrano warship. The tagline for the commercial is "To compete on English soil, we train on Argentine soil."

Argentina's Foreign Minister , Hector Timerman, issued a rambling statement condemning Britain -- and Rupert Murdoch.

He said Britain's Defence Minister had "chosen Sky News to publicly ask for our government's apology." He noted that Sky News, and several newspapers in Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. reporting the story all had Murdoch as a shareholder.

"These are the same journalists who stole emails, tapped telephones and paid for information that belonged to important members of [the British] government's political opposition," said Timerman.

In Buenos Aires, local admen were mostly talking, said AdAge, about how Y&R Buenos Aires made the ad on spec and shopped it around various marketers, who all rejected it, including Nike, a longtime client of another agency, BBDO Argentina.

The agency finally found a taker in the Argentine government.

Sir Martin Sorrell Y&R

More from Sir Martin Sorrell

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +