Pity poor Andy Jeal, managing partner of MediaVest Manchester, as he hunkers down by his wireless to learn the latest news about the fate of the media buyer’s famously ailing client, Northern Rock.
One informed voice has come to dominate the airwaves and front pages regarding the future of the institution which suffered the first run on a UK bank for more than 150 years – one Robin Ashby, variously a suffering investor in the stricken Geordie money lender (“and, wai-ai man, so is me daughter-in-law!) and the delegated spokesman for the Northern Rock Small Shareholders Group (height restriction, strictly four foot ten…).
Robin’s ubiquitous presence on radio, TV and in the national press announcing a dedicated opposition to the government-backed Virgin Bid to salvage the Rock may be of some scant consolation to Mr Jeal – a Virgin owned NR, after all, is hardly likely to honour its current media buying arrangements.
Should the worst happen and the Rock goes Branson-wards, Jealy can take some consolation that at least one Northern-based marketing communications company will benefit from the twilight weeks of Britain’s foremost “sub-prime” mortgage company – step forward the aforementioned, Robin Ashby, whose day job, when not a small investor, is managing partner of the Bergman PR consultancy in Newcastle.
However, the future for Ashby, a former (failed) Labour candidate, looks equally dismal as NR’s own. As the leading voice opposing the government-backed Virgin bid his chance of a safe seat – either in a shoe-in North East constituency or on budget flight to Orlando – looks less likely than Jealy himself shifting his own ample pension portfolio Rock-wards…
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