We try not to be too bothered about what they write about us in the trade press, good or bad. Better to be talked about than ignored. But every now and again there’s an article that makes me choke on my breakfast bacon sandwich. This morning’s front page story in Campaign was one of those.  Anyone reading the article above would probably infer that W+K has screwed up on the Visit Wales account and that Wales are therefore holding a secret pitch for the business. Indeed, I received a number of messages of condolences from Campaign readers who assumed we had already lost the account. Truth is, Visit Wales and W+K are very happy together. Next year, in 2008, Visit Wales will be required, as are all public sector accounts, to go through a formal review process on the third anniversary of our winning the business. This tender process, which is a matter of public record, is not referred to anywhere in Campaign’s article. I hope that when that review happens we will be sucessful in retaining the account. In the meantime, I contacted Noel Bussey who wrote the article to offer him a bet — £1000 of my own money says we’ll still have the business at the end of 2007. Funnily enough, he didn’t accept.

Above is Wieden + Kennedy London’s new tactical ad for The Guardian, promoting the 100 page camping guide free with tomorrow’s paper. The ad goes on air today.

It was the first ever commercial created by our team Amy and Jess.

Not only did they write the script, but Jess actually starred in it (she was the hands) and Amy provided many of the sound effects, though disappointingly not the cow’s moo.