Sorrell hit by friendly fire as recession rumbles on: Martin Sorrell's optimistic assessment of recovery seems premature alongside tales of woe in the UK. But he's no Comical Ali of advertising. (Business)

Marketing Week, May, 2003 by George Pitcher

I have been enjoying what Sir Martin Sorrell has had to say recently. It's reminded me of the optimistic media performance of Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf or Comical Ali, the erstwhile Iraqi information minister.

The gutters of the marketing services sector have been running red with the most fearful economic bombardment over the past year. You might say that advertising executives have been witnessing it in a state of "shock and awe", to borrow the description of what the US Defence Secretary promised to deliver on Saddam Hussein's regime.

Yet WPP Group's chief executive has been manfully appearing in broadcast and press media to tell us that the war against the American recession is being won. Only last week, Sorrell was identifying the first signs of recovery,...