Mike Hardiman, former Carpet Foundation chief executive and Brintons executive responsible for one of the industry’s most iconic marketing campaigns, has died. He was 79.
He died on 6 March. He had suffered from dementia.
His funeral will take place at 1.30pm on 26 March at Worcester Crematorium, followed by a wake at Wharton Park Golf Club. All are welcome.
He is survived by his wife Sonia, children Caroline and Jonathan, and grandchildren.
Hardiman began his career in flooring as a trainee manager at Brintons in 1964 after completing an HND at Kidderminster College when he was 18. ‘At that time there were 12,000 people working in carpets in Kidderminster. It was the capital of carpet in the world,’ he later recalled.
In 1993 he was in charge of the company’s marketing, and instrumental in the iconic Vivienne Westwood advertising campaign featuring her costumes. ‘I was negotiating one minute and the next thing I was on a shoot with David Bailey and Westwood. The campaign created a massive national stir.’ The campaign featured some of the arguably best-known carpet images of a generation, and saw further campaigns in 1995 and 1996.
After 35 years at the manufacturer, he helped launch the Carpet Foundation in 1999, becoming chief executive, before retiring in 2011.
Hardiman made regular media appearances during his years at the Carpet Foundation, including in 2001 telling The Guardian that health claims against carpets – a major issue at the time – were ‘propaganda’.
‘For the past two years the so-called Healthy Floor Network has conducted a propaganda war against this important industry, hitting profits and jobs. Now it turns out that the HFN has been in secret alliance with foreign flooring multinationals. For a Swedish company like Pergo to attack British jobs using a series of intermediaries posing as independent and impartial is a dirty tricks campaign. Pergo has been underhand and the HFN has misled the British public,’ he said. Although involved, Pergo denied Hardiman’s suggestion.
In 2008 he was lukewarm on the Fun on the Floor consumer marketing campaign. ‘The Carpet Foundation has run campaigns of one type or another over the last nine years. But most people know about carpets: telling them they’re soft and fluffy and you can roll around on them with no clothes on has no real effect.’
‘I think after 47 years I have done my bit,’ the West Bromwich Albion and international rugby fan said when he retired from the Carpet Foundation. ‘I’ve had a very interesting life and met lots of interesting people.’
