City Spy: Only a matter of time as BP ethics chief quits

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"How worried should Sir William Castell be about his job as senior independent director of BP?" asked a lead story in City Spy at the height of the oil giant's Gulf of Mexico spill in 2010. "Sir William could find himself in the firing line, as he has been at BP since 2006 - long enough to know what is going on inside the company - and is chairman of BP's grandly named 'safety, ethics and environment assurance committee'." Not any more.

Castell is quitting at this year's annual general meeting. No surprise, then.

*A new variation of "leaves on the line", the excuse used by the railways: Telecoms giant BT blames a 6% fall in consumer revenue in the run-up to Christmas on "lower call volumes in part reflecting the warmer weather compared with the same quarter last year".

*An award ceremony with a difference: the Local Data Company has announced the retail Pun of the Year competition. Groan-inducing offers include Amy's Winehouse, Bake 'n' Butty, Curl Up and Dye, Cutting Remarks, En-Thai-Sing, The King & Thai, The Meat'In Place, The Sweet Life, The Write Stuff and Thighs The Limit.

*Neil Bennett, chief executive of City PR firm Maitland, confesses he is "sick with excitement" because he has just found out he has been selected to run with the Olympic torch up in Falkirk. "I've been running for years but this is the big one," says Bennett, who has raised over £60,000 for charities. "It's the closest I will ever get to taking part in the Olympics." The Maitland boss will not be pushing himself too hard on the big day, June 13, after a harrowing experience two years ago when he ran a double marathon in South Africa and suffered temporary kidney failure.

Ogilvy's red carpet is made for walking

The great and the good of ad land turned out for a party at the Ivy Club in Soho thrown by Ogilvy & Mather after its subsidiary Ogilvy One was named direct agency of the year for the second time in a row by Campaign magazine. Ogilvy One boss Annette King broke out the champagne as Miles Young, the Brit who runs Ogilvy & Mather from New York, and other bigwigs had flown in. The big talking point was what happened to the mile-long red carpet that the agency bought - at not inconsiderable expense - to run along the length of the promenade at last summer's Cannes advertising festival to celebrate the 100th birthday of founder David Oglivy. Turns out the agency's top creative, Tham Khai Meng, had a clever recycling idea. He created thousands of pairs of inner soles out of the carpet to give to staff. The reason? To remind them they are walking in the footsteps of David Ogilvy.