It's all KFC

 

I would like to return to last week’s Fryday and, by way of explanation, answer a question one or two of you have asked. It is a question that I have been asked before, almost every time I either bored or enthralled people with stories of my political exploits.

That question is: how come you were working for Norman Kirk in one election (1972) and Rob Muldoon in the next (1975)? The answer is simple; I worked in Advertising—a profession not widely nor inaccurately known for its scruples. I worked with Bob Harvey’s Macharman Ayer advertising agency on the Kirk campaign (It’s Time”) and for Colenso on the Muldoon campaign (Dancing Cossacks).

It should be known that none of us working on those campaigns did so for ideological reasons. We were simply doing a job and selling what was for us a product. In fact, when we were asked, which was rare, about the perceived hypocrisy of working for two vastly different political platforms, our answer would be “it’s just Kentucky Fried Chicken”, which, incidentally, was a brand Colenso had a hand in introducing into New Zealand.

This in no way disparaging to the politicians. In fact, to this day, Norm Kirk is the most charismatic person I have met, and Muldoon—well, he is the most terrifying. Both were fundamentally good people who held to their beliefs. Both had the country foremost in their hearts and worked diligently to realise their visions for it.

We in Advertising, on the other hand, set aside any political bias we had and just got about doing our job. Which is more than can be said for many of today’s (young) political commentators.

Many of the young men and women who worked on those campaigns stayed on in advertising (some for too long), while others bought pubs. A couple committed suicide. Many freelanced, usually unsuccessfully. A few, very few, went on to become grandiosely named Political Operatives, working in the shadows.

But none of us, I think, lost sight of the endgame: selling product. That and the booze, the gambling, the drugs, the cars and the women.