Diary: Sir Sugar's sweet on the silver-tongued Lindsay

Campaign, Thursday, 24 March 2005 12:04PM

With few certainties in life, it's good to know you've always got options. So, should the imminent Cadbury review, coupled with a jejune 2004 in new-business terms, prove too much for the Publicis UK group chairman, Tim Lindsay, he can seek solace in the knowledge there's a potential apprenticeship waiting for him at Sir Alan Sugar's electronics empire.

Sugar, a man whose relationship with advertising is adversarial at best, is an unlikely victim of the silver-haired adman's legendary charm. Talking about the episode of The Apprentice, which broadcast on 23 March on BBC2, Sugar gushed that Lindsay's insight on the show - he repeated the old adage that if you chuck someone three balls, they will probably drop them all, but lob one slowly and they might have a chance to catch it - was "the only good thing I've heard coming out of an advertising agency in my life".

Quite how Lindsay would adapt his daily routine to the commute from Hammersmith to Amstrad's headquarters in Brentwood, Essex, remains open to question, but Diary is fully prepared to don its recruitment consultant hat and put both parties in contact again, and is even prepared to waive its usual commission rate on this extraordinary occasion.

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This article was first published on Campaign