Saatchi & Saatchi: The Inside Story

A revealing book on the advertising industry, this fast-paced, behind-the-scenes account of the rapid ascent and sudden downfall of the Saatchi & Saatchi agency benefits from numerous interviews with former employees and with the Saatchi brothers. Iraqi Jewish sons of a prosperous Baghdad textile merchant who moved his family to England in 1946, Charles and Maurice Saatchi founded the agency in London in 1970, shaking up the traditional British ad world with their witty, formula-smashing campaigns. Clients included British Airways and the Conservative Party (they helped propel Margaret Thatcher to power). Through relentless acquisitions, including mergers with long-established New York City shops, Maurice succeeded in his ambition to create the world's largest advertising agency, but by 1990 the overextended firm was nearly bankrupt. Fendley, media correspondent for London's Evening Standard, blames their downfall on Maurice's indifference to costs and a rampant expansion that alienated clients. In 1994 the brothers were ousted from their own agency in a shareholder battle led by 33-year-old Chicago investment banker David Herro. Fendley gives an evenhanded account of the ensuing legal and competitive fracas, which led the brothers to form a new agency, M&C Saatchi, while their former agency renamed itself Cordiant. Photos. (Nov.)