Kit Kat ‘Russian Linesman’

Kit Kat was not a sponsor of the 2006 football World Cup but our Nestlé client wanted to tap into the fervour surrounding the tournament.

Whilst at J Walter Thompson, with a great brief like this I would often give the whole department the opportunity and I must have looked at around 100 scripts.

I simply couldn’t resist the insinuation that the reason England were awarded a questionable goal in the 1966 World Cup Final was that the famous Russian Linesman was ‘Having a break’.

The writers were Michael Campbell and Colin Jones and, though he only had to shoot a few seconds of footage and weave them into stock footage, Chris Palmer went to extreme lengths to get it just right, using the exact same camera the final had been filmed with, working out the light angles meticulously and, as he triumphantly told me, even securing the white leather belt the linesmen wore in ’66.

Kit Kat ‘Ashes’

When I arrived at J Walter Thompson my briefing notes told me Wayne Robinson and Matt Collier were one of the young teams I should probably let go.

But I’ve always made my own mind up and, as much as they were appreciated, my briefing notes were, after all, provided by people who had presided over the very work I had been brought in to improve.

In fact, with their talent, ambition and incredible energy, within weeks Wayne and Matt were my ‘go to’ team.

This idea was completely proactive.

It needs to be understood within a cultural context but it attracted a lot of attention, not least from The Creative Circle where it won a Gold award.

Wayne and Matt have gone on to do extremely well.