Fast Company, Adweek and Advertising Age reported Diet Madison Avenue was temporarily shut down, but quickly reappeared—probably because it would have been too sad for the divertsity-driven Instagram account to be eliminated during Women’s History Month. However, the anonymous whistleblowers are facing opponents, including a group of female advertising executives publicly stating concerns and critiques. What’s most disturbing is Diet Madison Avenue’s response to anyone questioning the secret crusaders. That is, challengers to the cause are blasted as badly as the alleged sexual harassers. The DMA crew makes Mean Girls look like Mother Teresa. On the one hand, Erin Johnson’s trials and tribulations probably deter most legitimate victims from filing official accusations. At the same time, agencies are increasingly offering anonymous hotlines for employees, which diminishes the need for DMA. So in many respects, Diet Madison Avenue should die. Then again, if the DMA crew is comprised of actual advertising executives, the oh-so-provocative creators are undoubtedly reluctant to miss out on their shot at a Glass Lion.
1 comment:
One quick glance at the specific women outraged at DMA being anonymous, and having been in this industry a long time, made me roll my eyes. They've all recently worked with or for the Droga5 guy who got let go for (allegedly) sexual harassment, on his campaigns that sure as hell didn't hire POC in any meaningful way.
I don't mind anyone questioning DMA's accountability, but when it's primarily white women who've made money off of producing 6-figure campaigns with a guy who primarily hires other white guys and white women, their criticism falls more than a little flat.
Like, they had decades to speak up about the lack of diversity, of color, in D5, or any agency the guy was at, and t h i s is the hill they picked to die on? An anonymous Instagram account in the era of NDA agreements and Erin Johnson still being targeted?
It sounds more like they wanted to telegraph to all the other white guys in his position that they're totally cool and are safe to hire in the future.
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