DIARY: Stories we could tell ... Griffith's latent X-factor wows kids

Here's a story to warm the cockles of one's heart, and don't we all need a strong dose of feel-good tonic in these days of anthrax and other nasty scares. So what if the story has a commercial side to it, at least it's an attempt to encourage young ones to read. Here goes: just about everyone has probably heard about Harry Potter, the blockbuster from J. K. Rowlings, which is now a movie with sponsorship rights belonging to Coca-Cola. Coke is leveraging on this and has roped in its business partners, including M&C Saatchi Singapore chief executive Huw Griffith, to read to kids in its 'Magic of reading' tour. Diary hears Griffith has become something of a hit with his young audience. "The kids just went crazy for Huw," gushes Kate Bristow, M&C's strategy planning chief. Griffith's even ended up on the nightly news. What's Griffith's secret? Maybe it's the many client presentations he's been to - after all, don't client storyboards look like pages from a kid's story book. That and one other similarity, says Bristow. "All the kids get so excited and were putting up their hands wanting to speak to Huw. I've been to client meetings which is also a bit like that."

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