When it comes to choosing sides in the battle to host the Olympics, it seems business comes before patriotism for Sir Martin Sorrell.
The chief of WPP, the world's biggest advertising group, has expressed his strong personal support for the London bid, but his companies have been lending their expertise to several rival cities in the run-up to the vote in Singapore on July 6.
WPP advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather is working on the French bid; the public relations agency Burson-Marsteller is helping Moscow and the American WPP businesses are busy with the New York bid.
Most recently, the brand consultancy Landor Associates rebranded Madrid in the hope of revitalising its struggling Olympic campaign and reversing declining international interest in the city. Other WPP firms were also involved in the exercise. This is all despite the fact that Sir Martin personally lobbied the International Olympic Committee to support London's 2012 bid with a presentation to delegates when they visited in February.
It is conceivable that the WPP chief might not have been aware that Madrid had hired a group of WPP companies for a six-month rebranding project, but it is unlikely given Sir Martin's well-known attention to detail.
Conflicts of interest are commonplace in a company of this size. Sir Martin balances the rival interests of Unilever and Procter & Gamble, for in stance, by housing their advertising accounts in different agencies in his network.
Other WPP companies involved in the Madrid project are the market researcher Millward Brown; Burson-Marsteller; the direct marketing agency Wunderman and the advertising agencies Ogilvy & Mather and Young & Rubicam.
Madrid has just unveiled its luminous blue and orange logo of two exclamation marks that it hopes will become an instantly recognised international symbol.
"The exclamation point, as used in Spanish, includes an upside-down mark at the beginning and a right-side-up mark at the end of a sentence," said Landor Associates, which spearheaded the six-month project. "This is a form of usage exclusive to the Spanish language and one that characterises our language and our culture.
"In using two exclamation points instead of one, we are defending our culture, and trusting it will characterise Madrid and make the brand recognisable."
The theme of "focused passion" will be used to try to change perceptions of Madrid in a major campaign that it hopes will persuade the world that it is more than the home of flamenco, bullfighting and Posh and Becks.
The typography of the new logo is simple and legible and thought to reflect trust and stability while the colours were chosen to highlight the unique attributes of the city, Landor said.
"Our sky is an intense and luminous blue, a distinction no other city has.
"It changes colours during dusk and dawn - first purple, then pink, then orange - and it communicates our vitality, energy and our enthusiasm for life."
