By Stephen Foster on January 2, 2013
WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell relishes his bully pulpit, the platform he has to opine on business affairs and much else besides. And this morning he addressed the UK’s radio listeners with the observation that the amount of money companies paid in tax was a “question of judgement” rather than a matter of playing by [...]
Posted in Agencies, Finance, News, PR | Tagged bbc radio, interview, ireland, Jersey, Sir Martin Sorrell, tax
By Staff on November 12, 2012
We’ve remarked here before how much better Vodafone Ireland’s advertising has been than that for big brother Vodafone UK and Ireland agency Grey London (is this getting confusing?) has produced another nice piece of work; this time some Bambi-style animation plugging Vodafone products as Christmas gifts. Vodafone UK appointed RKCR/Y&R to handle its account following [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Creative, News | Tagged grey london, ireland, rkcr/y&r, Vodafone, yoda
By Staff on September 4, 2012
Buccaneering Irish bookie Paddy Power has launched in Italy, scene of an ongoing football match-fixing scandal. Why overpaid footballers should need the money is a mystery to the rest of us, but there you are. So who better than Jesus to cleanse the temple, sorry the dressing room (this is the English version). Power has [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Creative, News | Tagged crispin porter+bogusky, football, ireland, italy, jesus ad, match-fixing scandal, Michael O'Leary, Paddy Power, ryanair
By Stephen Foster on April 25, 2012
Apple has just produced another series of record numbers with soaring sales of iPhones and iPads adding more than $35bn to its value (which had fallen recently due to misplaced fears that its growth was slowing), adding $12.6bn to its cash pile which now stands at about $110bn. Pity it doesn’t pay tax on much [...]
Posted in Clients, Finance, News, Politics | Tagged $110bn cash pile, apple, caribbean tax havens, exxon mobil, hewlett-packard, iPad, iPhone, iPod, ireland, iTunes, John D. Rockefeller, mac computers, market dominance, Microsoft, record profits, samsung, standard oil, tax avoidance, Tim Cook
By Stephen Foster on December 9, 2011
Sir Martin Sorrell and WPP have been lobbying hard for changes to the UK ‘controlled foreign companies’ tax rules which are designed to stop UK-based companies and their overseas subsidiaries paying lower rates of tax abroad. The UK coalition government is due to announce changes to the regime in March but has been telling some [...]
Posted in Agencies, Finance, Media, News, Politics, PR | Tagged city am interview, controlled foreign companies tax rules, David Cameron, George Osborne, ireland, low corporate taxes, Sir Martin Sorrell, UK tax changes, WPP
By Stephen Foster on June 23, 2011
The cost-cutting fanatics in the UK coalition government, headed by cabinet office minister Francis Maude, have finally axed the COI, the government information body that was Britain’s largest advertiser just two years ago. Here’s what they say: The reform of the organisation of Government communications has been announced today by Francis Maude, the Minister for [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Finance, Media, News, Politics | Tagged central office of information, coi, communications delivery board, executive director, Francis Maude, ireland, libya, Matt Tee, scrapped, WPP
By Stephen Foster on March 23, 2011
Well the good knight didn’t get to where he is today by not reading the small print and he’s evidently waiting to see just how WPP will benefit from coalition chancellor George Osborne’s Budget changes before finally committing the marcoms giant to returning as a London registered company after shifting it to Jersey and Ireland [...]
Posted in Agencies, Finance, News, Politics | Tagged budget, coalition chancellor, goerge Osborne, ireland, Jersey, Sir Martin Sorrell, tax, WPP
By Stephen Foster on March 22, 2011
Be prepared is obviously the motto at Nike as well as the Boy Scouts (or is it Girl Guides?) and Nike was ready with this little film to celebrate England’s rugby team winning the Grand Slam against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday. But the Irish forgot the script (as usual) and comprehensively stuffed the old [...]
Posted in Clients, Media, News | Tagged England rugby, film, grand slam, ireland, nike, viral
By Stephen Foster on March 21, 2011
Back in 2008 WPP decided to register the company in tax haven Jersey and base it in Ireland in a protest at what it saw as double taxing of profits (in its case the overwhelming majority) earned outside the UK. The move is estimated to have saved Sir Martin Sorrell’s company about £50m a year [...]
Posted in Agencies, News, Politics, PR | Tagged double taxing, George Osborne, Hugh Dalton, ireland, Jersey, Sir Martin Sorrell, the budget, Treasury, WPP
By Angie Dean on December 17, 2010
Interesting new commercials are coming thick and fast and Diageo, owner of Guinness and other brands including Johnnie Walker is dipping into its copious pockets again with this ad from AMV’s Irish operation that debuts in Ireland imminently before coming to the UK (and lots of other places besides presumably) in March next year. The [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Creative, News | Tagged amv, diageo, global campaign, guinness, ireland, johnnie walker, more life in the dark
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