Adweek questioned IPG Chairman and CEO Michael Roth on the firing of Campbell Ewald executives in light of the Ghetto Day incident. “I made a change in their leadership, and I have faith in the current leadership. I think what happened was unfortunate, but I wouldn’t view it as a systemic problem within the agency,” explained Roth. “We felt that individuals did not handle a situation appropriately, and we took immediate action in terms of removing those people from the agency because this was not consistent with our overall culture of diversity and inclusion.” Um, the email was sent in October, and the firings happened in January. So Roth’s definition of “immediate action” is pretty funky. And it’s still not clear if Campbell Ewald CEO Jim Palmer was axed before or after USAA terminated its contract with the agency. Come to think of it, did any Campbell Ewald employees participate in the Ghetto Day celebration? If so, when will they be fired? “We as a company have an extensive diversity/inclusion program,” boasted Roth. “We started this effort a number of years ago, and we continue to get awards and recognitions … while holding our people accountable.” Sorry, trophies from the New York Urban League and ADCOLOR® Awards do not trump EEO-1 data. And “holding our people accountable” does not mean much when the accountability standards remain company secrets. For a guy with a background in finance, Roth talks like the slickest of hucksters.
IPG Chief Michael Roth on Firing Campbell Ewald’s CEO and Being a Leader in Diversity
When it recently came to light that agency Campbell Ewald had for several months quietly tolerated a racist email sent by a creative director, the response from parent company IPG was a swift executive decapitation.
Not only was the San Antonio-based creative director behind the “Ghetto Day” note fired in January shortly after AgencySpy published the email, originally sent in October 2015, but CEO Jim Palmer was also terminated almost immediately. He was replaced by Campbell Ewald president Kevin Wertz.
The high-profile move, though quick, was not enough to stop major client USAA from dropping the agency, though it may have helped staunch the bleeding of any further client walkouts over the incident.
After IPG’s quarterly earnings call today, Adweek spoke to Interpublic Group chairman and CEO Michael Roth about several issues, including Palmer’s firing.
Here’s what Roth had to say about the termination and the standing of Campbell Ewald:
“I made a change in their leadership, and I have faith in the current leadership. I think what happened was unfortunate, but I wouldn’t view it as a systemic problem within the agency: We felt that individuals did not handle a situation appropriately, and we took immediate action in terms of removing those people from the agency because this was not consistent with our overall culture of diversity and inclusion. We are moving forward.
“We as a company have an extensive diversity/inclusion program. We tie our CEOs’ performance to certain objectives and we hold them accountable. Just yesterday we were awarded the New York Urban League’s Champions of Diversity award in New York, and we are well recognized as a leader in our industry.
“I believe we’re on track to making progress, but I think we’ve got a ways to go.
“We’ve moved beyond quotas. Our industry has to move toward inclusion because the marketplace demands it. If we don’t have people who represent the consumer, then how can we represent the client? We started this effort a number of years ago, and we continue to get awards and recognitions … while holding our people accountable.”
7 comments:
IPG Translation Bot.
"We as a company have an extensive diversity/inclusion program" = but no benchmarks or accountability, we just say we have one and no one bothers to check any further.
"We tie our CEOs’ performance to certain objectives and we hold them accountable" = but we don't publish those objectives, so no biggie, and you can hit these imaginary marks by hiring white women and calling it "diversity."
"Just yesterday we were awarded the New York Urban League’s Champions of Diversity award in New York" = we paid them. Money. A "donation." Just don't call them up and ask directly how much they received in exchange for being used as a heat shield!
"and we are well recognized as a leader in our industry." = we are recognized by ourselves because we, IPG, fund the Adcolor Awards and staff, then we turn around and award ourselves Adcolor diversity awards so we can protect ourselves from negative PR in times such as these. The tail eats the snake.
Smoke and mirrors, IPG.
The real truth of what goes on underneath the surface at IPG's agencies (and how to actually fix it, beyond internships for teenagers and fancy PR smokescreens) is here:
http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1622&context=open_access_dissertations
in the first place, this guy had to actually kick off his portion of the call by specifically addressing diversity. That must have been really uncomfortable for him, and very important for whatever reason if it was the first words out of his mouth. You should check the transcripts of the call, it's awkward to say the least.
Second, who's buying Roth's line of bullshit? Just because he's insisting that he's committed to diversity doesn't mean the emperor suddenly has clothes. Why is nobody calling this guy out?
And why on earth, other than the thousands and thousands of dollars donated to them by IPG each year, would the Urban League stand behind this jackass when he's doing the minimum possible in his agencies in terms of actually doing something, and the maximum in terms of dodging, punting and paying off ethnic groups and teenage mentoring programs instead of actually hiring and promoting adults?
Were they not aware of the timing, to coincide with the big quarterly report after IPG was in the news? Were they repaying some kind of favor? Is one of the heads of the Urban League on the board of Adcolor or something?
Whatever it is, IPG is grasping hard (too hard) to their "we're champions of diversity" lie. How long until it falls apart?
The New York Urban League's Champion of Diversity Awards are based on a robust and competitive selection process. Companies must submit data as a part of the process and submissions are judged by a committee of corporate subject matter experts according to a set of criteria. Contributions are not taken into consideration and the integrity of the awards program is paramount.
Companies that make a huge donation of tens of thousands of dollars to the New York Urban League get to self-submit data? That was the criteria?
Mmmhmm. Huge side eye.
I am disappointed in the New York Urban League, I really am. They were traditionally the one place that spoke up about the vast and overwhelming disparities in the hiring of black professionals on Madison Avenue and seemed to care, dating all the way back to the Civil Rights era.
Now this year they allowed themselves to be used as a prop in a racist holding company's quarterly report and press releases. Really, go scope out the IPG transcripts and press releases. The timing couldn't have been better in the wake of the "ghetto party" invite meltdown that led to Campbell Ewald losing a huge account.
Yet there's the New York Urban League mentioned in conjunction WITH the name of Campbell Ewald, and held up as an example of IPG's commitment to diversity, in a press release that was sent out globally. Huge coup for IPG in exchange for, what? A couple of thousand dollars in donations and a bare minimum of lifting a finger for black professionals in the industry?
We're watching the number of black creatives in advertising slide backwards year by year. Now down to less than a dozen female black creative directors nationwide, if we're going to be honest. Probably more like five or six. Black men, who knows? Holding companies like IPG sure as hell come up with excuses not to release any figures. They just wave the smokescreen of programs for inner city teenagers and walk away.
And instead of demanding that the holding companies release actual, vetted EEO1 numbers to the public, the Urban League quietly allows them to submit their own numbers of their choosing in private, and gives them an award and a pass for it.
Integrity, gone.
Integrity of the awards program, gone.
You know how you get integrity back, Urban League? You speak the hell up and rescind the award to IPG in light of this news that has come to your attention, in light of being used by IPG to clean their reputation, and in light of the fact that they didn't reprimand the team in charge of the ghetto party until four months after the fact, and only because the press got involved.
You rescind the award because even after all that went down, after the press slinked away, IPG PROMOTED this guy in their place.
https://twitter.com/__MaryEllen/status/698832623343374337
I'm sure it's just a coincidence that IPG's VP of Diversity serves on the NY Urban League's Board of Directors.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS193136+05-Mar-2012+BW20120305
You know, the NY Urban League that awarded a big Diversity award to a holding company that was just front page news for Ghetto Days racism.
TOTAL COINCIDENCE that this same woman, who serves on both the Urban League's board of directors and is still paid by IPG, is quoted in IPG's press release touting their diversity (just in time to calm down investors, too!). Funny how they left out the part where she's serving two masters, though.
http://www.interpublic.com/news/pressreleases?release_id=2137827
http://www.interpublic.com/diversity/results
Ooooh! Someone’s hard at work updating the IPG diversity stats all of a sudden! The spin machine is out in full force! Wonder why? Let’s break the spin down on the rare chance the NYC Comptroller’s office or Cyrus Mehri is watching, though.
“(From 2005) through 2015, there has been an improvement of more than 55% within African American, Hispanic and Asian minority groups in the “Officials and Managers” category” = IPG may have had less than 20 to start with nationwide, so “doubling” to 40 warm bodies in a decade isn’t exactly the majestic achievement they’re claiming. They’ve also lumped Hispanic and Asian together so they can get away with counting overseas foreign hires (i.e. white Brazilians) in the U.S. on temporary visas as minorities and shuffle African-American numbers to the back of the line, hoping nobody will notice.
“Total minorities make up 19% of US “Officials and Managers,” an increase of 94% since 2005” = they counted white females as part of “total minorities” to boost the numbers, and HB-1 visa holders.
“The “Professional” talent base is 26% minority, an increase of 45% since 2005” = they counted white females as minority, therefore boosting their numbers. Ditto on HB-1 visa holders and white LGBT being included.
“Women make up 54% of all the company’s managers - including executive, senior and mid-level management - an increase of 16% since 2005” = IPG leaves out any solid numbers on female minority increases, because there are none, and instead claims all the white females they promoted as proof of diversity.
But the best one is this:
“IPG exceeded the U.S. Ad Industry External Workforce Benchmark in both “Officials and Managers” and “professionals” categories for women and total minorities in 2015, the most recent annual filings” = IPG has no plans to release EEO-1 data, ever, but isn’t above quoting government statistics to make it seem to the casual observer and investor like they’re fully in alignment with laws and regulations.
Smoke screen, smoke screen, smoke screen and spin.
Tick, tock IPG. Even investors are starting to notice something’s massively wrong.
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