Ahhh, passing the buck - it's a dance move as old as the hills, as timeless as diamonds, as classy as a dry martini (feel free to rearrange those analogies at your own behest.) And what beautiful examples we've had of such manoeuvres over the Bank Holiday.
Regular readers (hello, mum) will remember the tale last week about Doctor Martens launching an advertising campaign featuring dead singers of the Cobain / Strummer ilk wearing their clunky footwear, presumably to show how the only people stupid enough to wear those ugly boots have to be literally brain dead. The fact that this turned out to be one of the more meaningless ad campaigns of all time wasn't a problem; that they hadn't got permission from Courtney Love, the woman who may or may not have been the inspiration for Tori Amos' song Professional Widow, was. So now Dr Martens has apologised to Love, who has only ever made reference to her late husband in the most tasteful and necessary of circumstances, and fired its ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, who in their turn fired the person who authorised the advert. This, my friends, is what is called "log rolling."
Which brings us nicely to Quintessentially, the number one helpline on my speed dial. So it turns out someone from the posh concierge company was caught sorting out a rather impressive 30 grammes of coke for a journalist at a party in Cannes. My God, can you imagine? Who'd have thought that a company staffed by a bunch of aristo thirtysomethings that describes itself in its brochure as "latter-day magic for a generation reared on the idea that money can buy you anything" would be up for getting its members drugs from time to time? The very idea! The thought that a member of this company, specifically posted to Cannes during the festival to look after actors, producers and assorted other clean living members on the yacht parties open to the idea of finding some class A drugs? Absurd! Certainly Aaron Goldstein, co-founder of Quintessentially, claimed to be "absolutely beside myself." And I don't blame him: you can't have a staff member going around town flogging coke at a reputed £68 a gramme, suggesting at least 25% mark up above the usual street value. I mean, people will think it's a company just for rich thickos.
