Jimmy Carr at IAB Engage 2010

Last year it was Stephen Fry, this year the IAB managed to secure the acerbic services of Jimmy Carr to end their marvellous Engage 2010 event in London’s Mermaid Theatre.

Jimmy used to be in marketing at Shell, so was well placed to take the p*ss out of us advertising folk, something he did in spades. Not that anyone minded because of the hilarious way he did it, leaving Richard Eyre, chairman on the IAB, speechless on more than one, if not most of the time Mr Carr was on stage.

Sat in the front row, I couldn’t resist asking a question when the time came, and wondered what brand would Jimmy like to do a voice-over for or represent in a TV commercial.

At first he said, “Show me the money!” but then actually got quite serious citing that celebs have to think really hard about what brand they align with because it has to help them in their careers as well as them helping the brand.

He mentioned what the John Smiths ads had done for Jack Dee’s early life as a comedian and how Peter Kay had perfectly picked up the baton and run with an evolved advertising campaign with the same beer-maker to great success – not just in sales, but for the personal brand of Peter Kay.

It was genuinely interesting stuff from a bloke who’s obviously as super-sharp as the suit he was wearing!