Lord Bells textbook for old school public

relations
By Henry Mance
Everyones entitled to put their point of view across, says Lord Bell, reclining at
his desk near Londons Sloane Square, with three buttons of a white shirt undone
and a dozen cigarette butts in the ashtray beside him.
The founder and chair of Bell Pottinger is the UKs most controversial PR man.
Once a link between Margaret Thatcher and the media, he offered advice in support of
former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and Alexander Lukashenko, the authoritarian
president of Belarus. Today Bell Pottinger has nearly 500 clients. High-profile
figures have represented recently to include the journalist Rebekah Brooks
(innocent of phone-hacking) and entertainer Rolf Harris (guilty of sex offences).
Has he ever said no to a prospective client? I said no to Mugabe, I said no to the
Labour party, I said no to six of the Russians that were being sanctioned [by the
EU]. I only take on clients I think I can do a job for, he says.
This week Lord Bell published Right or Wrong, the story of his ascent into public
relations. It is labelled a working memoir, a genre that probably translates as
Im not dying yet. He describes his route through advertising agency Saatchi &
Saatchi and into Thatchers inner circle, before running his own communication
businesses. Some of the things Ive done have been terrible, but I find them very
funny, he says.
The book contains fleeting mentions of divorce, depression and cancer. But it is
mainly an ode to Thatcherism, underlining Lord Bells role as the most political of
British advisers. Under Thatcher, he could open doors in the corridors of power.
But now he portrays himself almost as an outsider, nostalgic for different times.
He has joyous memories of an age when nepotism was an acceptable career
catalyst. (If you want to help the people around you and help the people close to
you, so what?) An age when a female job applicant might be judged by her
breasts; An age when, to raise fears of Japanese takeovers, it was deemed
acceptable to create a figure with narrow eyes;
How to manage a crisis
1. Dont panic
2. Work out a plan
3. Avoid blame, but take responsibility
4. Accept help, but never lose ultimate control yourself
5. Manage expectations
6. Be there and be available
7. Be as transparent as possible

8. Understand your media and audience

From Right or Wrong, by Tim Bell
Politics and business seem incompatible when Lord Bell talks about the banking
community in our interview. Theyre all complete criminals. The whole bloody
lot, he says. Might expressing such a caustic opinion of bankers not unnerve Bell
Pottingers financial sector clients, such as Investec and TPG? Thats the problem,
you see, youre not allowed to tell the truth. Isnt that disgusting?
Bankers are only one of many frustrations. Another problem is the medias
addiction to apologies. We never tell clients to apologize, he says. We often
tell clients to acknowledge that theyve made mistakes, that theyve delivered a
bad service.
Lord Bell also has little time for the nanny state (I smoke as much as possible)
and anything vaguely high-tech. His company was once caught covertly editing
clients Wikipedia pages, but he wields an old Nokia. I want a mobile phone. I dont
want a mobile computer, he says. He condemns modern society with a stream of
expletives; his book calls Twitter the end of civilization.
Alongside his rival, Sir Alan Parker, founder of Brunswick, he used the corporate
battles of the 1980s to supercharge the PR industry. We agreed to charge proper
fees. He charges more than me now, he didnt then.
They start off being nice But the machinery turns them into zombies: unfeeling
and deadly.
In the UK Brunswick, with estimated annual revenues of 46m, is now considerably
bigger than Bell Pottinger, which Lord Bell and a business partner took private two
years ago in a management buyout. Has the penchant for pariahs hurt the
businesss mainstream appeal? On the contrary, Lord Bell argues, for 15 years his
old group Chime Communications was number one.
Brunswick was never anywhere. Theyve tried to do government relations and
failed. Theyve tried to go to America and failed, he suggests. [Alan Parker]
befriended all the banks, the advisers and the parasites that live in the middle of
these transactions. I didnt I worked for the client. Brunswick, which has four
US offices, declined to comment.
We talk to ordinary people. We may appear to be elitist in the way that we live, the
cars we drive and the houses that we live in, but our whole life is spent trying to
work out how you can persuade people
Not that he always took the clients interests too seriously, particularly when they
disregarded his advice, as Jacques Chirac did in the 1988 French election.
Mitterrand walked it and Chirac lost again. But at least we got our fees, he
writes.

As with all PR men, it is unclear whether Lord Bells influence is over- or

underestimated. Right or Wrong does not reveal much of his art, apart from his
close contacts with the editors of the Sun and the Daily Mail. His eight rules of
crisis management (see box) are unremarkable, but that may be the point.
I dont think Im a genius. I think Im a perfectly normal person who uses
common sense. Has the game changed? Persuasion works the same way it
always has done.
Lord Bells biggest weapon is his self-assurance. How much responsibility does he
bear for the poll tax, the flagship policy that was Thatchers greatest PR disaster?
None whatsoever. I wasnt responsible for government policy.
Its much more factual, because youre frequently dealing with financial results if
you think those are facts
Does he really believe as Right or Wrong says that Salvador Allende burnt
Chiles electoral rolls? Many historical sources say it was Pinochets military junta,
I point out. No, it wasnt. It was Allende. He was a Marxist, he says. Anyway, I
never met Pinochet. Actually I did meet him for 10 minutes.
Does he regret representing Mr Lukashenko, who promised to allow fair elections
then didnt? When I worked in Belarus, I spent most of the time with the British
high commissioner to Belarus picking my brain to find out what Lukashenko was
doing.
Such self-confidence has unnerved Lord Bells own clients. Right or Wrong details
how Chris Patten, then the Conservative partys head of research, objected to
several proposed Saatchi & Saatchi ads on the basis that they were factually
incorrect. The agencys most famous poster Labour Isnt Working was
approved despite Tory murmurs that their own policies would increase
unemployment further. Nonetheless, Thatcher trusted him. She used to call me
the man on the Clapham omnibus. She used to think I was in touch with ordinary
folk, God knows why, he says.
Three decades after his political heyday, Lord Bells electoral diagnosis has an
appealing simplicity. When youre in opposition the only argument youve got is
that its time for a change, he says.
This is what makes the next election in the UK so interesting, he says. Whatever
happens theres going to be a change. So nobodys going to be able to do its time
for a change and nobodys going to be able to do its no time for a change.
Someone might even ask for his campaigning advice.

VOCABULARY
to put ones point of view across
to or on the opposite side
recline \ri-kln\
: to sit back or lie down in a relaxed manner
: to lean backward
joyous \joi-s\
: feeling, causing, or showing great happiness
covert (ly) \k-()vrt, k-; k-vrt\
: made, shown, or done in a way that is not easily seen or noticed : secret or hidden
wield, verb \wld\
: to hold (something, such as a tool or weapon) in your hands so that you are ready
to use it
: to have and use (power, influence, etc.)

expletive, \ek-spl-tiv\
: a word or phrase (such as Damn it!) that people sometimes say when they are
angry or in pain; especially : one that is offensive
buyout noun \b-auut\
: the act of gaining control of a company by buying the parts of it you do not own
mainstream noun \mn-strm\
prevailing current or direction of activity or influence
self-assurance noun \--shuur-n(t)s\
: confidence in yourself and your abilities
poll tax noun
: a tax that each adult has to pay in order to vote in an election

flagship noun \flag-ship\

: the ship that carries the commander of a group of ships
: the best, largest, or most important one of a group of things (such as products,
stores, etc.)
junta noun \huun-t, jn-, hn-\
: a military group controlling a government after taking control of it by force