WPP's Sorrell Given Right to Herd Sheep Over London Bridge
WPP chief Martin Sorrell has been given the freedom of the City of London by the lord mayor and other bigwigs. The purely ceremonial honor comes with a number of bizarre privileges dating back to medieval times. Among them is the right to herd sheep over London Bridge. Other rights Sorrell now has include:
- To go about the City with a drawn sword.
- To be married in St. Paul’s Cathedral.
- To be buried in the City.
- If convicted of a capital offense, to be hanged with a silken rope.
- To avoid being press-ganged (i.e. forced to work on a ship).
- To be drunk and disorderly without fear of arrest.
Past “freemen” include The Queen, Florence Nightingale, Dwight Eisenhower and Theodore Roosevelt.
Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
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