Uisdean Maclean

Highland Correspondent

Tuesday 7 August 2012

Advertising watchdog;

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David Ross

Born: September 6, 1950; Died: July 30, 2012.

Uisdean Maclean, who has died aged 61 of cancer, came from a famous Hebridean family but made his life in London where he was a major figure in the world of marketing and advertising.

As director of the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) for eight years, he was ultimately responsible for deciding if a TV advert was fit to be broadcast. He and his staff would view more than 20,000 commercials a year. BACC was an independent body, funded by the ITV broadcasting companies. The advertising companies saw BACC as a policeman, a description Mr Maclean did not like, preferring that of a nurse. He believed it helped protect creativity in the industry. But it was a role that often saw him the focus of controversy. In 2002 BACC banned adverts for a satirical cartoon after ruling they were offensive. In one then US President George W Bush was shown putting the video in a toaster rather than a video player. Another featuring David Beckham was also banned. The ad had him asking his wife: "Victoria, how do you spell DVD?" Personally he was no fan of Mr Bush and was fairly indifferent to the then captain of England's prospects, but publicly he defended the BACC's decision, saying: "People are entitled not to be exploited for someone else's commercial gain." However, he spent more of his time defending advertisers and their art rather than curtailing it. It was in the industry's folklore how this man, who headed its watchdog, had not even seen a television until he was 12. His home was in South Uist, one of the last places in Britain to get TV reception. Meanwhile one trade journal revealed some industry players had described him as a "dour Scot". It left his family and wide circle of friends wondering if those behind the description had ever actually met this most sociable of Gaels, who was its complete antithesis. He was one of five sons. Their father, Alasdair Maclean , a native of Raasay and brother of the poet Sorley, was a renowned GP on South Uist; and their mother was from a notable Skye farming family of Macaskills. He attended Lochboisdale Primary and the Royal High School in Edinburgh, before taking an honours degree in commerce at Edinburgh University. It was while he was a student he met his wife Moira, but their paths were to go in different directions after university only to meet again in later life. He was to head to London and a position in the marketing department of the American multinational conglomerate 3M, where he stayed for three years before moving to cosmetic company Avon's overseas marketing department. Four years later he joined the ITV Association Copy Clearance Department, later renamed Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre. He was promoted to director in 1996 until 2004 when BACC's work was taken over by Clearcast Ltd, and he moved into consultancy work. Mr Maclean would regularly declare his masterplan was to relocate back to Scotland "sometime fairly soon". It never happened and recently he admitted that after 40 years in London he was now working on a new strategy. It involved him staying exactly where he was, in the city he had come to love. The Harringay Arms at Crouch Hill was his local pub, an English institution close to his heart. It was where the embrace of his local community was most obvious. He had determined to make the most of retirement and indulge his passions from opera to sailing, walking to sport and photography. He also had been talking about learning to fly. But it was not just about doing his own thing. A caring man, among other commitments he was a volunteer mentor in the local secondary school, helping youngsters of lower reading ability in their first year. He was the longest serving volunteer and was asked to speak at the school's end-of-term assembly just a month or so ago. He and Moira, to whom he was devoted, had a lot planned, but were cheated of their time by a recent diagnosis of cancer. Shortly before Uisdean Maclean died his brother Cailean phoned from South Uist, where he was attending a Gaelic music festival. He had got a local piper to play his brother's favourite pipe tune down the phone to him in London. It was Pipe Major Donald MacLeod's hornpipe Crossing the Minch. His family will soon make that journey with his ashes, taking him home one last time.

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