Day 037 - 14 Oct 94 - Page 04
1 considerable degree of proficiency in the more technical
2 aspects of the food industry. Another one of our clients
3 was the preeminent manufacturer of food wrapping
4 machinery, the name Auto Wrappers.
5
6 More recently, I sold my interest in the agency at the age
7 of 29 and I took a year off, during which I considered how
8 best to use those talents that I have in marketing, and
9 I decided that one of the more important things to me was
10 to use my skills and abilities to promote something that
11 was worthwhile.
12
13 I think one of the reasons that I was increasingly
14 dissatisfied with the world of marketing and advertising
15 was that I think you can fairly characterise it as being
16 ethically neutral. In other words, it is a tool that can
17 be used for good or for bad. Whilst not wishing to malign
18 any of my previous clients, I suspect that perhaps a lot
19 of my work for them was not particularly useful in terms
20 of making the world a slightly better place.
21
22 So, after taking 12 months to think about my priorities in
23 life, I decided to use my skills to promote vegetarianism
24 and other associated areas.
25
26 Now that took the form, first of all, of being the first
27 Chief Executive of the Vegetarian Society in this country.
28
29 Q. That was when? Which year?
30 A. That was 1985. I resigned from that position and
31 spent most of my time after that writing and researching
32 in this area and in, obviously, the other side of the
33 coin, the vegetarian coin, is the meat industry. So I
34 have become an expert in that area too. One of the
35 problems that marketing and advertising people
36 historically have actually is, although they are very good
37 at blowing other people's trumpets, they are not
38 particularly good at blowing their own.
39
40 I have to say, with a blushing face, that I was recently
41 called a marketing genius by the Sunday Times, but I also
42 have to say that round about the same time, just a few
43 weeks ago, The Financial Times ran a piece which more or
44 less compared me to Adolph Hitler. I suppose that says
45 something about the degree of confidence one may place in
46 the press.
47
48 Q. Was he very successful in marketing, Adolph Hitler?
49 A. In unethical marketing, I would say.
50
51 Q. You said about the other side of the coin. I think this
52 is, in fact, what this case is about?
53 A. Yes.
54
55 Q. Partly about, certainly this aspect of the case -- I
56 cannot remember your words -- what aspect of the meat
57 industry were you analysing and researching, whatever?
58 A. The area that was of greatest interest, and still is,
59 is the area of promotion, the way that the meat industry
60 as a whole and specific companies within it, within that
