Would You Rather Lick an Abattoir Floor or Work With Me?
{ Daily Mail } With a company worth £8billion and a personal fortune of £100million, Sir Martin Sorrell is a giant in the world of advertising. About a year ago, Sir Martin, chief executive of the giant WPP group, dismissed Marco Benatti as the company’s chief representative in Italy – and replaced him with the Italian’s former protegee, Daniela Weber.
Soon afterwards, “vicious” images of Sir Martin, 62, and Miss Weber, 44, together were circulated on the Internet, and e-mails were sent suggesting that she had been promoted only because she was having an affair with him.
E-mails containing the images – which were not described in court but are believed to depict the couple having sex – were mocked up to appear that they were officially sent by WPP. They were entitled: “Accelerate your career in WPP”, and “Four steps to boost your career”.
A spokesman for Sir Martin said he admitted having an affair with Miss Weber, but it was in the past. The company chief’s counsel Desmond Browne QC told the court that another e-mail referring to Sir Martin and Miss Weber contained the phrase: “Let the mad dwarf and the nympho schizo drown in their own filth.” The tycoon is believed to be about 5ft 4in, although his spokesman insisted last night that he is in fact 5ft 6 1/2in.
A later e-mail circulated to figures in the advertising world said: “Sir Martin’s Italian lover must be hot to be worth 50million.” This is presumed to be a reference to Sir Martin’s divorce from his American-born wife Sandra, 60, in 2005, after 32 years of marriage. She was given an astonishing £29million payout, including their £3.5million London home in Knightsbridge and two underground parking spaces at Harrods worth £200,000.
Sir Martin’s libel action is against Mr Benatti, the Italian’s business partner Marco Tinelli and their Italian media company, FullSix Spa. (…) Mr Benatti was fired after WPP had bought a company for £14million on the Italian’s recommendations – and Sir Martin subsequently claimed to have discovered that Mr Benatti had a stake in the firm.
The main substance of the libel claim is that a blog instigated by the two Italians published malicious lies about his business methods in Italy. It is the first British libel case involving a blog – an Internet diary containing personal opinions and observations.
Although Mr Benatti and his “lieutenant” Mr Tinelli deny libelling Sir Martin, the court has heard that Mr Benatti’s lawyer made an astonishing phone call to WPP’s lawyer “and told him that Mr Benatti would be devoting the next few years to destroying Sir Martin and WPP and it had now become a personal battle.”
Sir Martin is widely known as a workaholic, and his ceaseless toil has created the second biggest advertising and marketing firm in the world. WPP has 65,000 employees spread across 2,000 offices in 106 countries. It not only creates adverts and marketing campaigns but also buys space in newspapers and on the airwaves to disseminate them.
Cambridge and Harvard-educated Sir Martin has faced slurs before – including references to his lack of stature. His fellow advertising guru David Ogilvy once referred to him as “that odious little s***”, and his relentless drive for success has been accredited to what has been called his “classic Napoleon complex”. Another media rival, tycoon Chris Ingram, once said he would rather “lick an abattoir floor” than work with him. The libel hearing is expected to last up to three weeks.
illustration { Diario de Sao Paulo ad }
