UK multinational has been one of US pro-gun group’s key political advocates, its firms collecting $1.46m in fees since 2007

The British advertising and public relations company WPP has been one of the National Rifle Association’s most important political advocates in the last decade, with companies it owns collecting $1.46m (£1.1m) in lobbying fees since 2007 to further the US pro-gun group’s agenda.

At the same time as companies owned by WPP helped the NRA block gun control legislation in Washington, WPP sought to portray itself as being opposed to gun violence. A sustainability report on its website points to a 2013 pro gun-control advert that one of its advertising companies produced pro bono as part of WPP’s human rights work.

Last week the US had its deadliest mass shooting in recent history, when a man with a stockpile of weapons opened fire on concertgoers in Las Vegas, killing 58 people and wounding 500.



After the shooting, Wayne LaPierre, the NRA chief executive, signalled some support for an examination of new rules that could regulate the sale of bump stocks, a device used by the Las Vegas shooting. But the NRA is expected to oppose any effort to ban the devices by law.

LaPierre also argued on Sunday that Americans would ultimately be safer if their access to guns was expanded and if federal laws that restrict gun rights locally were overturned.

“There are monsters like this monster out there every day,” he said. “Nobody should be forced to face evil with empty hands.”



WPP is the world’s biggest advertising multinational. Its role in the pro-gun movement reflects the global nature of the US gun industry. The NRA has, through the skill of the lobbyists it employs, become the single most dominant political force in Washington in opposition to gun control legislation, using its 5 million-strong membership to pressure Republicans and conservative Democrats against any such proposals.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sir Martin Sorrell, the WPP chief executive. Photograph: Ruben Sprich/Reuters

Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of WPP and one of Britain’s highest-paid executives, declined to respond to a request for comment.

A WPP spokesperson told the Guardian in an emailed statement: “Our subsidiary companies will not undertake work that is intended or designed to mislead, and they operate within national laws at all times. In the US, our public affairs companies have representatives of both major parties among senior management, and work with clients from across the political spectrum.”



WPP’s main lobbyist for the NRA in recent years has been Vickie Walling of Prime Policy Group. Walling is described in her biography as a 30-year veteran of Democratic politics on Capitol Hill, where she worked for Democratic members of Congress before joining the lobby firm.

Before Walling a Republican lobbyist, Wayne Berman, was WPP’s primary link to the NRA. Berman had served as chairman of Ogilvy Government Relations, a WPP company, but resigned in 2012 to join Blackstone, the private equity firm.

WPP firms – Ogilvy and then Prime Policy Group – have generated a steady stream of revenues from the NRA in the last decade, US lobbying records show. Prime Policy has not recorded any new revenues from the NRA in 2017 – such reports are made quarterly and are public record – but the firm still lists the NRA as a client.

In the 2013 pro-gun control ad, which was produced by WPP advertising company Grey New York, a man enters an office with a musket and misfires a single shot aimed at a co-worker. Scrambling office workers have time to escape as the shooter stops to clean his rifle. “Guns have changed. Shouldn’t our gun laws?” the ad states.

That same year, lobbyists working for a company owned by WPP helped to defeat an effort on Capitol Hill to pass a gun control measure after the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, in which a gunman killed 20 children and six adults.

Barack Obama has said the day of the massacre, which occurred just before Christmas in 2012, was his worst day as president and that the subsequent failure by the US Congress to pass a gun control bill was his biggest disappointment. Today, gun control advocates say the futility of their fight against the NRA was made apparent after the shooting.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A bump stock device like that used by the Las Vegas gunman. The NRA is expected to oppose calls for a complete ban on the device. Photograph: George Frey/Getty Images

Prime Policy was paid $60,000 by the NRA in 2013. The lobby group staunchly – and successfully – opposed the bill, which had some bipartisan support and contained proposals including an expansion of background checks for gun buyers, a ban on assault weapons and a ban on high-capacity magazines.

All failed to win the necessary 60 votes in the Senate despite the fact that the parents of Sandy Hook victims lobbied on behalf of the measures.

In a three-page statement published on its website last year, WPP said respect for human rights was a “fundamental” principle for WPP and its companies.

“In our business activities we aim to prevent, identify and address negative impacts on human rights and we look for opportunities to positively promote and support human rights, including children’s rights,” the company said.

It also said it would not undertake client work “designed to mislead on human rights issues”.

The NRA has blamed Hollywood, criminal justice reform and the mental health system in the US for the country’s gun violence epidemic.