{"id":17870,"date":"2022-03-30T23:21:06","date_gmt":"2022-03-30T23:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/03\/30\/i-went-back-to-the-north-with-my-tail-between-my-legs\/"},"modified":"2022-03-30T23:21:06","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T23:21:06","slug":"i-went-back-to-the-north-with-my-tail-between-my-legs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/03\/30\/i-went-back-to-the-north-with-my-tail-between-my-legs\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I went back to the north with my tail between my legs’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“I don’t think brands need to be political today, I think they need to be clear about their purpose,” says Chris Kay, CEO of advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And on purpose, Mr. Kay says he takes a stand on the values \u200b\u200bthey act by and want to uphold \u2013 these could include anything from gender equality to environmental stewardship.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Consumer businesses like clothing stores or fast food chains are feeling increasing pressure to take a public stand on issues their customers care about, from gender identity politics to racial justice to the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It’s a tricky balancing act, and recently companies like Coca-Cola, Decathlon and McDonald’s have faced negative hashtag campaigns against them online and threats of boycotts for initially continuing their operations in Russia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Younger people tend to expect a social and political conscience from their favorite brands. Mr. Kay describes this as a new type of scrutiny that is affecting the way advertising agencies work to shape a company’s public image.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He asks his customers to start a conversation about what values \u200b\u200bthe company really wants to reflect.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“What is their role in the world? What perspective will they help consumers?” are among his questions – and he says they are best addressed with an open conversation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“If you’re clear about your goal, whatever’s happening in the world, be it International Women’s Day, the morale you have in the boardroom, [allow] You can react to whatever is happening.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Chris Kay became CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi in the summer of 2021. The advertising agency is a well-known brand itself, thanks to charismatic founders, Iraqi-born brothers Charles and Maurice Saatchi, who founded it in London in 1970.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It owes its reputation to the memorable, overtly political messages it wrote – particularly those pro-Conservative.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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His most famous slogan was for the “Labour Isn’t Working” campaign in the 1979 general election.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Another early campaign that attracted attention was The Pregnant Man for Charity, the Health Education Council. To honor this, the agency owns an eponymous pub next to their London headquarters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Today Saatchi & Saatchi is part of the larger parent company Publicis Groupe and Chris Kay is responsible for UK operations which employ just over 300 people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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His mother was a working class nurse from Burnley in the north of England and his father was a manager in the local factory. They taught him many skills that have helped him in business, albeit indirectly, he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Mum left the house at 6pm to work a night shift, then came home at 6am and sent me off to school.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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From his father he learned \u201cto play high and low\u201d, which means to deal with people from all walks of life in a friendly manner. Mr. Kay often went in to watch him at work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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His northern working-class origins made it harder to break into advertising 25 years ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After graduating from Manchester University, he tried to gain a foothold in London advertising agencies through the Graduate Milkround.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I showed up in a corduroy suit thinking I was incredibly dapper but probably looked stupid. I came back north with my tail between my legs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I think I faced prejudice,” he says. “Agencies were built out of an Oxbridge network, it was all about the names above the door, which were well-educated London surnames – I might have been too coarse on the edges.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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However, he proceeded to carve a way up. He got a job with an agency in Manchester and then took a job in London specializing in video game marketing and working on a PlayStation account.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He later became head of marketing for Manchester City football club just as its coffers were being filled by the Abu Dhabi royal family in 2008.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He then built his career outside the UK for more than a decade, working in senior positions in Australia, Asia and the US.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Working abroad, he felt the relief of not having to lug around the class baggage. \u201cEspecially in Australia, everyone is new from two generations ago. So there’s a real belief in people doing well, which made me feel like I was part of a great society,” he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But his time abroad was also associated with loss. “I feel like I’ve lost my grounding [because] I no longer feel like the working class, I feel like a citizen of the world.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Kay has returned to the UK and appreciates that the country has “been through incredible changes” including Brexit and Covid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But has a more optimistic economic outlook for the rest of the year – based on higher adspend towards the end of 2021, more investment in start-ups and some strong gross domestic product (GDP) numbers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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To capture this new spirit of the UK post-pandemic, he believes his company needs to better represent the diversity of the UK.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He believes that stereotypes have been challenged more frequently over the past decade as more families and couples have been used in advertisements based on different racial backgrounds or sexualities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“A lot has changed in terms of on-screen performance,” he says, but cast isn’t the only answer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He cites the example of recent Christmas ads, many of which now feature less middle-class white families. \u201cBut that’s not all, there are 200 different ways to celebrate Christmas in this country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe have to move [on] from the casting to the cultural diversity – to represent everyone and how they live and breathe in this country.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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You can follow CEO Secrets reporter Dougal Shaw on Twitter: <\/i>@dougalshawbbc<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n