Well, I’m afraid my trip up to Merseyside didn’t really go to plan. Not a single winner at Aintree’s Ladies’ Day or in the National (Shakalakaboomboom my arse) but at least I did manage to bag myself a new man. Not quite 9½ weeks – more like 9½ inches for 9½ hours – but he sure knew how to treat a lady. (Not that I’m a lady in the bedroom, of course.)
Still, onwards and upwards as they say. I also managed to get back to London just in time for the GGT (remember them?) reunion at the Crown and Two Chairmen in Soho. I wasn’t invited, you understand, but I just happened to be strolling past when I saw Mike Cornwell in full swing.
Now, I’m sure his intentions were entirely honourable but I could have sworn he arranged it just so he could badger some of the old crew into giving up their time to lecture at the IDM…
To be honest, the Crown is a good a place to start, too, as it is the favoured watering hole of many an agency boss and a lot easier than trying to locate them using that “interactive map of the pubs of adland”, produced by Red Brick Road the other week.
The agency claimed to have analysed thousands of tweets, Instagram photos, Foursquare check-ins and scoured hundreds of blogs to reveal which pub “belongs” to which agency. It also redesigned the pub logos in the style of the agency that most frequents the boozer.
Yeh, right. Funny then how all the pubs are simply the nearest ones to the agencies listed isn’t it? I mean, the Sun & 13 Cantons is designated as the Red Brick Road pub – and is conveniently situated right across the road – yet I’ve never seen Richard “Dickie” Megson or Matt “the sensible one” Davis anywhere near it.
You’re much more likely to see them in the Old Coffee House a bit further down the street. The map claims that is the M&C Saatchi local, which is also a nonsense – everyone knows that Maurice’s underlings all drink at the Graphic Bar in Golden Square. And BBH’s house pub is supposedly the Blue Posts directly opposite its offices. The point is, agency folk rarely go to the pub opposite because that’s the first place the bosses go looking for them…
And call me old-fashioned, but this is hardly in the spirit of Red Brick Road’s motto “Above & Beyond” is it guys? But it’s OK, I won’t tell anyone so long as you take me out for a nice lunch.
One man who is definitely up for a freebie is Campaign deputy editor Jeremy Lee, who has unashamedly posted on Facebook: “Available for Glastonbury invites”. Whoever answers that call is going to need deep pockets that’s for sure. Jezza is one of the few people I know who can out-drink my esteemed old soak of an editor, and between them they must have drunk nearly every pub in adland dry…
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