Hasta La Creative!

Bell Pottinger, the London-based public relations firm started by an adviser to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has been thrown out of the U.K. industry body in an unprecedented ruling after an investigation found its work on behalf of the Gupta family in South Africa had stoked racial tensions.

Bell Pottinger ran a potentially divisive social-media campaign aimed at highlighting economic inequality in South Africa along racial grounds and targeted wealthy white individuals and companies, according to a probe by law firm Herbert Smith Freehills. The company’s actions “brought the industry into disrepute,” the Public Relations and Communications Association said on Tuesday. “It has received the harshest possible sanctions. The PRCA has never before passed down such a damning indictment of an agency’s behavior.”

The firm was found to have broken four clauses of the body’s code of conduct and professional charter while working for the Guptas, who are friends with President Jacob Zuma and in business with his son. The rules state that members shouldn’t cause racial offense with their work and “deal fairly and honestly” with the public at all times.

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