IT IS LUCKY for Sir Martin Sorrell – boss of the still Irish-headquartered advertising giant WPP – that he has already got his knighthood in the bag, given that an advertisement produced by one of his agencies has had the misfortune to create fresh waves of diplomatic ire between former enemies Britain and Argentina.

The advertisement, created for the Argentinian government by the Buenos Aires subsidiary of WPP-owned Young and Rubicam, features an Argentinian Olympic athlete training on a war memorial on the Falkland Islands (or the Malvinas as they’re known in Argentina) and boasts the line “to compete on English soil, we train on Argentine soil”.

This is perhaps not an ideal message when tensions in relation to the islands are once again ratcheting up between the Argentinian and British authorities. Young and Rubicam has issued an apology and condemned the work of its Buenos Aires office, but the Argentinian government has to date ignored a plea by an “appalled” Sorrell to stop showing the advertisement. The Olympic Games are going to be so lovely and awkward.