Close-Up: Live issue - Is adland less ageist than we think?

Kate Nicholson asks whether the industry has finally woken up to the importance of experience.

Is the advertising industry's old guard staging an unlikely comeback? The prevailing trend in the industry has been for ever younger executives, yet in recent months, the business has seen two fiftysomethings and a sixtysomething dominate the headlines.

Steve Henry, the TBWA\London executive creative director; Peter Scott, the Engine Group chief executive, and Sir Frank Lowe, The Red Brick Road's founder, are all in jobs you'd expect to be occupied by younger executives with at least 20 years of their careers ahead of them. Has the industry woken up to the importance of experience?

When, at 51, Steve Henry became TBWA\London's executive creative director, tongues wagged. Few doubt his gravitas, and the strong personality he will bring to the agency is much needed since Trevor Beattie's departure. But, they wondered, is he hungry enough for the challenges at the agency?

At fiftysomething, it seemed odd that Scott, a man who has enjoyed wealth and its trappings, would want to return to frontline agency management. When he first linked with Robin Wight more than a quarter-of-a-century ago to help found WCRS, Scott was the disciplined counterbalance to his flamboyant partner. Now he's back, he's as disciplined as he ever was.

And at the age of 64 and after two years in purdah, it seemed Frank Lowe wanted a final crack of the whip. The fact he has carried the Tesco and Heineken accounts around in his pocket for so many years is surely something only achieved with age and experience.

Henry's, Scott's and Lowe's reasons for returning to the front line are all quite different. But, one agency chief says, they all share a common theme: 'These men are big characters - movie stars in the ad industry who have powerful egos. Why have they returned? They want to prove that they can do it over and over again.'