Saachi brothers come to the party

Melbourne Herald Sun, Friday 15 October 2010.

A week ago famous British ad agency Saatchi and Saatchi celebrated its 40th birthday and the biggest surprise was the guests - brothers Charles and Maurice Saatchi, who stormed out of the agency after a boardroom coup in 1995, to found M&C Saatchi.

They joined 1500 past and present staff and clients to celebrate the early days when they conquered the world, creating some of the most memorable ads and commercials - ever.

In 1970 they generated a storm from the start with the then shocking photo, even for Swinging London, of a "pregnant man" holding his distended tummy. The headline read: "Would you be more careful if it was you that got pregnant?"

Anyone who visited the UK in the years that followed will remember the beautiful, subtle ads for Silk Cut cigarettes, the magic of their British Airways commercials. And one campaign that travelled the world was "Australians wouldn't give a XXXX for anything else", for a certain Aussie beer that became popular in the London pubs.

The creativity came from Charles Saatchi, who built advertising's sharpest creative departments around the world, especially Australia.

These days Charles is probably even more famous to the general public as the lucky husband of Nigella Lawson. He gets the soulful eyes, the heaving bosom - and she can cook. What more could a man want?

Back in 94 the Saatchis’ departure dealt the agency some near-mortal blows. Mars walked out, while Dixons electrics stores, Mirror Group Newspapers, British Airways and Gallaher tobacco accounts followed the brothers to their new start-up, M&C Saatchi.

However, to everyone’s surprise both agencies recovered and flourished, to the point where they are not only talking but sharing parties. Not political parties though. In the recent UK election Saatchi and Saatchi did the Labour campaign while M&C did the Conservatives.

Here in Australia the agencies mirrored their parents. M&C Saatchi opened in Sydney with a coup - the Qantas account. The two have been fierce rivals ever since.

Today M&C have over 400 staff and are one of the biggest agencies in the country with clients like ANZ, Optus and Freedom.

Currently they are taking some satisfaction from their recent win of David Jones from their brother agency - the new campaign starts next week.

Of course in advertising the agencies may change but you’ll always come across the same old faces. In this case, 30 staff have moved from the old agency to the new. The more things change...

DJs is not the only pain Saatchi and Saatchi have been suffering down under. This week they have lost their important Toohey’s New and Hahn accounts, though they will be grateful that these did not move to their fraternal rivals.

The pressure is mounting though. Just a week ago their keystone $50 million Toyota account also came under threat, with a slice of it going to Droga5. An agency born in London from ex Saatchi staff and also repeating the success pattern in Oz.

So did Australian M&C fly up to London to join in the party? “No,” said Chairman Tom Dery. “I did receive an invitation but things were too busy down here. That party was not just for Saatchi and Saatchi but for all of us who came from the brand. We’re more interested in celebrating our own 15th birthday, in three weeks.”


If he had attended he could have recollected old times over a beer in their local pub next to the office in Charlotte Street. Appropriately named, “The Pregnant Man”.