15787: Random & Rambling Thoughts On True Diversity.

 

Opening Caution: This blog post is an admittedly winding and rambling discourse.

 

Adweek published a fluttering fluff piece that probed the 3% Conference shuttering and Kat Gordon muttering—a cluttering stuttering of the recent Advertising Age report buttering the same White-bread topics.

 

According to Adweek, “…Gordon stated that she wants to ultimately create a curriculum for the modern creative leader that takes into account all of the recent world and work changes, and centers on diversity, new work processes, neurodiversity, mental health, stress and wellness.” Huh? How did Gordon evolve from divertsity defender to pseudo industrial organizational psychologist?

 

Then again, it’s pretty common for advertising executives to transition to consultant roles—leveraging their huckster skills to position themselves as gurus with wondrously insightful theories for improving situations that they failed to solve or even affect as insiders.

 

Yet this blog post examination, believe it or not, ain’t about Gordon—but rather, what the moment may represent. It all appears to be another example of the abandonment of true diversity. True diversity, for the purposes of this discussion, is defined as fair and equal representation of historically marginalized groups.

 

Fostering true diversity takes deliberate effort—which requires doing more than the norm (in Adland, incidentally, doing the norm is doing nothing). Showing part-time concern is not good enough. What’s more, a true diversity defender must constantly develop themselves, while envisioning, setting and achieving progressive goals.

 

True diversity defenders do not have the luxury of retiring from the cause. Only the privileged and entitled enjoy self-imposed parameters and self-interested schedules. Moving onto more pressing concerns is a typical diversionary stunt—as well as a demonstration of lackadaisical commitment and limited courage. Deciding ‘mission accomplished’ is as outrageous as declaring the attainment of a post-racial society.

 

Net Conclusion: Adland fails to realize true diversity because too many leaders—and thought leaders—lack true dedication.

 

Okay, that’s enough muddled musing for this blog post.

 

The 3% Conference Is Ending but Kat Gordon Continues Her Work to Improve the Industry

 

The conference’s founder talks about what’s next for the movement

 

By Kyle O’Brien

 

Kat Gordon founded the 3% Conference in 2012 to raise the profile of women in the advertising industry. The longtime copywriter and creative director started the conference and the 3% Movement to address the fact that only 3% of creative directors were women. Now, after 10 years and 28 events, the 3% Conference has come to an end.

 

Gordon cited several reasons for ending the 3% Conference, including the logistics involved in planning a large symposium and a pandemic that wasn’t kind to in-person events. After a decade of wrangling sponsors, coordinating big events and having one conference become totally virtual because of Covid-19 concerns, Gordon decided it was time to wrap it up. That doesn’t mean that the efforts of 3% will go away, however. Gordon said they will continue, as will her work in the industry concentrating on work/life balance and mental health issues.

 

“It took so much of my time to negotiate sponsorships and to work out programming. And I really enjoyed elements of it, but I felt like it was stymieing me from doing other kinds of impact work around our issues that use higher order thinking,” Gordon told Adweek.

 

Gordon said that what was great about the conference was that it built an energized community that had a shared understanding of the issues it put out to the world. Ten years of events were necessary to earn the trust of the industry and build that community. Moving forward, the people that were inspired by the events are now deployed and hopefully implementing gender and racial equality in the workplace outside just a few days at a conference.

 

“There was almost a beautiful, circular notion to it—10 years, a nice round number. It feels good. There’s always loss in change, but I’ve been really bowled over by the amount of outreach that we’ve gotten since [it was originally announced]. Lots of people just saying how incredibly important this movement was to their personal career, to their deciding to stay in the industry, to their ability to lead in this industry,” said Gordon.

 

To that end, the 3% Movement will still have smaller virtual gatherings for the community, like a recent expert roundtable about the future of freelance, along with other curated and smaller events and series. 3% will also be continuing its Next Creative Leaders partnership with The One Club.

 

Diving back into the agency world

 

Gordon has newfound energy thanks to a new gig with San Francisco agency Eleven, a “creative entrepreneur in residence” role that focuses on inclusion, belonging and corporate social responsibility.

 

“It aligns with what’s happening in this moment with remote work. And that to me, that’s a bigger gift I can give to the creative industry, a kind of roadmap forward for creative leadership in this new world of work.”

 

Gordon linked up with Eleven the very first year of the 3% Conference, as it was the only agency to sponsor the event. She credits Eleven’s CEO Courtney Buechert, with whom she had worked at Anderson & Lembke years before, with helping get 3% on the map, along with founding sponsors Adobe and the 4A’s.

 

“I had just described to him what I was building, and he really wanted to support it. So it’s a very similar thing that 10 years in, I start describing to him another new thing, which is, I just don’t feel like creative leaders are being trained to meet this moment, and all these other factors around wellness and stress and burnout, and corporate social responsibility on behalf of clients. And I just didn’t really feel like anyone was having that conversation,” said Gordon.

 

Buechert asked Gordon to write up a job description for what she envisioned, which turned into Gordon’s current position. In her role, she writes about issues ranging from corporate social responsibility to managing remote work, returning to the office, team dynamics and pretty much whatever else she wants to write about, using LinkedIn and Substack as home base.

 

“It’s been the corporate social responsibility piece I’m really excited about. The future of our industry is more about what our clients represent, who they are as corporate citizens…than just what they sell,” Gordon stated, adding that creative leaders need to be driving those conversations and changing briefs to reflect a new strategy based on more than just features and benefits.

 

A space for mental health

 

Another venture the multi-hyphenate Gordon is excited about is her role on the board of the Representation Project, California first partner and filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s non-profit that uses film and media to challenge harmful gender norms and stereotypes. It’s the organization behind the films Miss Representation and The Mask You Live In.

 

“They have a brand new film that just debuted at the Sonoma Film Festival called Fair Play. It’s about the invisible labor that women do at home and how it is impacting their ability to contribute at the highest levels at work,” said Gordon, adding that the organization is working with Reese Witherspoon’s production agency, Hello Sunshine, on doing a series of screenings on the film, accompanied by virtual events, including a mentor matchmaking event.

 

Aside from all that, Gordon stated that she wants to ultimately create a curriculum for the modern creative leader that takes into account all of the recent world and work changes, and centers on diversity, new work processes, neurodiversity, mental health, stress and wellness. To that end, Gordon recently bought a home in Napa with a big four-car garage that she would like to convert into a place to host creative retreats, for groups of creative leaders to come together around wellness and creative goal setting.

 

Gordon hopes that her 10 years leading the 3% Conference has set her up to be able to grab the sponsors and players that can fund these gatherings and keep pushing the industry ahead in the right direction.

15771: The 3% Conference Moves To 0%...?

 

Advertising Age reported the 3% Conference is shuttering after a decade of divertsity defending and patronizing partying. Ironically and hilariously, the announcement was delivered during Women’s History Month.

 

Also under consideration for nixing is the vaunted 3% Certification stunt, a move that would eliminate an easy heat shield for White advertising agencies to purchase and promote.

 

As always, 3% Movement Madam Kat Gordon provided fuzzy commentary, including, “…but I’m 56 years old and if I feel like I have 10 more years to give to this issue, which it would be so great to do, I just don’t think that putting on events for the next decade is the highest use of my brainpower.” Is Gordon saying that she intends to eventually retire from the cause? Sorry, but that smacks of entitlement and privilege. Does a true advocate for social change ever stop fighting for justice and equality?

 

Can’t help but wonder if Gordon is surreptitiously fishing for bailout investors—and volunteers—to keep the annual soiree afloat. Surely Cindy Gallop will march to save the conference, albeit mostly to prevent the loss of a paid speaking engagement for herself. Hey, don’t be surprised if the “certified” White advertising agencies cough up cash—and much more than 3% of their allowable tax-deductible donations.

 

The 3% Conference Ends After A Decade

 

The event is a casualty of COVID, but the group’s mission will live on with ‘capsule’ and virtual efforts

 

By Brian Bonilla

 

The 3% Conference, perhaps the premiere industry event championing diversity and female leadership in the industry, is ending after a decade, Ad Age has learned.

 

The event, which regularly drew nearly 2,000 attendees, attracted a veritable who’s who of top-level speakers and panelists including David Droga, now CEO of Accenture Interactive; Cindy Gallop, founder of Make Love Not Porn and If We Ran the World; Vita Harris, global chief strategy officer of FCB; and Margaret Johnson, partner and chief creative officer, Goodby Silverstein & Partners.

 

But the realities of COVID have caused the event’s organizer, the 3% Movement, to change course. The group will be retooling its programming to offer more year-round virtual content and shorter “capsule” in-person events, and may drop its certification program, said Kat Gordon, founder and CEO of the 3% Movement.

 

Market conditions have also changed: When the 3% Conference started, only 3% of creative directors were female; now that number is up to 29%.

 

Finding more bandwidth

 

A big part of the decision had to do with how much time and effort the large event took to coordinate.

 

“There was a sense that after 10 years and 28 live events it’s time-consuming work if you do it really well,” Gordon said. “We delivered really thoughtful events that were high production value events where we sweated every detail and everything was beautifully art directed. It got to the point where I realized that even though the events were such a home run and brought in so much money, they took everything. They took a lot of money, they took a lot of my time.”

 

“I started to think about the world we’re living in today versus when 3% launched and there’s so much momentum around racial issues and gender expression and all these other things that relate to the central mission of 3%. I felt like I could not give my highest brainpower to those problems if I was still overseeing” the conference, she said.

 

Gordon is the sole owner and currently the only full-time employee of 3%, which at one point had 10 staffers.

 

“There was a lot I got pulled into that was sales-related, such as selling sponsorships; a lot of people wanted to talk programming ideas with me,” said Gordon. “It was a great honor to do that and I felt there were elements of it that I loved, but I’m 56 years old and if I feel like I have 10 more years to give to this issue, which it would be so great to do, I just don’t think that putting on events for the next decade is the highest use of my brainpower.”

 

She declined to discuss revenue figures but said that virtual events allowed the group to lower costs and ticket prices. Its first entirely virtual event in 2020 amassed 10,000 attendees, including 1,000 students who attended for free. Its hybrid conference last year filled 400 in-person seats, due to COVID restrictions, and “thousands of virtual attendees,” but less than the year prior, Gordon said.

 

‘A lot to tackle’

 

Another offering that 3% will “probably” be moving away from is its certification program, which dissected and evaluated participating agencies’ policies, programs, and systems around women in the workplace. Each certification typically took around two months. Currently, agencies that have been certified are 72andSunny, VMLY&R, Swift, Possible, and Forsman & Bodenfors. Only one agency was certified last year, not because of a lack of interest, but because of difficulties brought on by the pandemic, according to Gordon.

 

“3% certification was born out of no one owning the metric piece [of the lack of women in creative leadership],” said Gordon. “But it became clear that it’s difficult to be both the awareness creator around an issue and the solver for everything that contributes to the problem. That’s a lot for a small organization to tackle.”

 

From now on, the organization will be focused on bringing awareness to organizations like Agency DEI, whose sole focus is measuring the diversity numbers of agencies. Instead of the certifications, the organization could still consult with agencies in various ways, Gordon said, such as by offering them its belonging, inclusion and leadership talent survey to be filled out by employees.

 

Moving forward

 

The organization will now look to launch around eight virtual events annually and around three in-person events, although nothing is definite yet, Gordon said. A virtual roundtable the organization is streaming later this month focuses on the freelance workforce in the industry, hosted by Jill Gray, executive VP, client solutions at VidMob.

 

3% will also be shifting from its “Minicons,” which were essentially one-day conferences that happened throughout the year, to smaller events. “It could be a meetup in New York City in the summer where it’s a cocktail party or maybe there’s a speaker, but it’s not so much conference-driven,” said Gordon. “We would love to find more opportunities to bring capsule content into other events like South by Southwest or the 4A’s, or even an agency conference.”

 

“Our sponsors have been asking for years for more year-round ways to support our community and have their conference sponsorship have a lasting impact,” Gordon added. “This enables us to meet sponsor requests, world health realities, and bring more people into the conversation around diversity and creativity.”

 

The organization will continue its virtual mentor matchmaking event, launched last year, where young female talent “speed dates” for 15-30 minutes with various senior female creative leaders from different companies. Gordon is also working on creating a report out of crowdsourced ideas that came out of the last conference around the topic of “isms,” meaning racism, sexism, and ageism.

 

Making a difference

 

Gordon said that stepping back a bit allows her to enact true change herself. In November she took on a “creative entrepreneur in residence” role that she created within San Francisco-based agency Eleven. The goal is to ultimately build a curriculum for “modern creative leaders” as she looks to tackle the challenges creatives are facing amid the pandemic and shifts in the workforce.

 

“We’re in a moment in time where everyone is awake to the realities of the importance of diverse perspectives in creative cultures, women being one group, but there are multiple groups that are underrepresented currently,” said Gordon. “I don’t think this is the kind of mission that will fully solve itself in my lifetime and I’m ok with that. But it feels really good to devote a good portion of my career to trying to make a difference.”

15594: Kat Gordon Inflates From 3% To 11.

 

Advertising Age reported 3% Movement Flounder, er, Founder Kat Gordon will join San Francisco-based Eleven as Creative Entrepreneur in Residence. Um, why would any self-respecting White advertising agency need a ‘creative entrepreneur’ on staff? Don’t most adpeople possess inherent creativity and entrepreneurial spirits?

 

Actually, the Ad Age story sounds like Gordon is positioning herself as a Chief Divertsity Officer Consultant. And a part-time CDOC to boot, as she’ll only be working three days per week at Eleven, maintaining her 3% Movement CEO title and peddling her CDOC services to a variety of enterprises. BTW, although Eleven displays a diverse staff, the folks in charge and holding big titles are predominately White.

 

The newly invented appointment presents certain fishiness too. Gordon hatched the idea while collaborating with Eleven CEO Courtney Buechert, who appears to be a 3% Movement sponsor. After writing the job description for the role, Gordon decided she was the perfect fit. How convenient. Were any other candidates—ie, people of color—interviewed for the position? The chances of having conducted a fair and inclusive job search are probably less than, well, 3%. Sorry, but it all smacks of the traditional exclusivity that routinely occurs between privileged White cronies.

 

But, hey, the Caucasian conspirators will spin it as creative entrepreneurship.

 

3% Movement’s Kat Gordon Becomes Eleven’s ‘Creative Entrepreneur In Residence’

 

Organization’s founder remains CEO but will take a lesser role moving forward

 

By Brian Bonilla

 

The 3% Movement founder Kat Gordon is taking on a new role at Eleven next month as the San Francisco-based agency’s “creative entrepreneur in residence.”

 

Gordon, who announced the move during today’s 3% Conference, says she’s unsure how long her time at Eleven will take. Tentatively she envisions sometime between 6-12 months. While Gordon will remain as CEO of the 3% Movement, she will be assuming a lesser role with the organization moving forward.

 

“3% will continue, but will evolve to allow me to spend less time fundraising and planning an event and more time creating the next meaningful change our industry needs,” Gordon said.

 

This newly created role came about following a conversation Gordon had with Eleven CEO Courtney Buechert about the future of the creative department and the type of leader that is necessary now compared to the past. After writing out the job description, Gordon realized she was the best fit for the role, she said during a conference panel today.

 

“The way I was trained to be a creative 30 years ago is woefully inadequate for the realities of the industry today,” Gordon said in a statement. “As creative departments finally start to look representative of the consumer landscape, the old ‘container’ doesn’t work anymore. Top/down leadership, internal competitiveness, big egos, and extroverts dominating—all of this is ripe for disruption. My vision is a new curriculum for the modern creative leader that centers on belonging, unlocks contributions and collaboration from everyone, and enhances the corporate social responsibility efforts of today’s clients. I’m delighted that Eleven is allowing me to pressure test my own thinking inside their agency and report back to the industry about my findings.”

 

“The plan is to serve in this role at a variety of companies, including a tech company and a large holding company setting to ensure that the curriculum I’m building works in a variety of settings,” Gordon said via email. “Simultaneously I will be championing other agencies to have a CEIR of their own (which is why I posted the job description and started the Substack newsletter where I will be posting regular updates about how it’s going for me at Eleven.)”

 

As part of the program, Gordon will work three days a week at Eleven.

 

Some of her duties will include meeting with each member of the creative department and agency leaders to identify the existing agency culture and set up goals for the agency moving forward. She will be reviewing hiring briefs, creative brief templates, and recent performance reviews with a focus on inclusion. Gordon will also participate in new business pitches and new client onboarding to help ensure that the work emphasizes diversity and that the client’s corporate social responsibility efforts are centered in all future messaging. Gordon will also have a hand in shaping safe post-pandemic working conditions in a return-to-office scenario where she will put a special focus on creatives who are neurodiverse or need extra support around mental health.

 

“As we expand Eleven’s commitment to diversity and a truly inclusive workplace, we are thrilled to embark on this partnership with Kat Gordon,” Buechert said. “Kat is a top voice in the industry who understands how quickly the landscape is changing. Going forward we want our internal processes at Eleven to allow people who historically haven’t been in leadership positions to bring their unique perspectives and whole selves to their work. With the Creative Entrepreneur in Residence program we hope that we can dismantle barriers in the professional development of our creatives and inspire change outside of our walls.”

15516: Divertsity Doubleheader For VMLY&R.

 

Adweek reported VMLY&R appointed its first Health Practice Lead and Chief Strategy Officer for VMLY&R Health, North America. Of course they did. Hey, the place has to earn its 3% Movement certification. Of course they do. And the Chief Integration Officer will probably mark the appointment as a diversity move. Of course he will. Actually, it’s a divertsity doubleheader.

15135: VMLY&R BIPOC BS&WTF.

 

VMLY&R announced the promotion of Myron King to Chief Integration Officer, a role tasked with “focusing on BIPOC corporate integration; consulting on marketplace diversity; and developing inclusive policies, practices, and protocols for business evolution.” Plus, King will be a “strategic partner” on VMLY&R’s Transformation Initiative, which is charged with combating systemic racism throughout the firm. Huh? Why would a White advertising agency boasting 3% Movement certification and diversity innovation need to invent a new position to fight systemic racism? Actually, that’s a self-answering question—it’s because VMLY&R, despite its deceptive and denial-driven PR hype, is a White advertising agency.

 

VMLY&R Promotes Myron King to Chief Integration Officer, North America

 

VMLY&R has announced the promotion of Myron King as chief integration officer to lead organizational design and cultural integration strategy for North American clients. He joins VMLY&R’s executive leadership team and will report to Global Chief Experience Officer Jeff Geheb.

 

In this new role, King will oversee the strategic integration of core agency capabilities for new and existing clients across North America. This includes focusing on BIPOC corporate integration; consulting on marketplace diversity; and developing inclusive policies, practices, and protocols for business evolution.

 

In addition, the chief integration officer serves as a strategic partner for the agency’s new cross-departmental Transformation Initiative. VMLY&R’s Transformation Initiative aims to implement integration efforts that combat systemic racism across all areas of the business, both client-facing and internal. The initiative will also support ongoing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategies that drive measurable progress and substantive and lasting change for BIPOC employees and VMLY&R employees at large.

 

King’s appointment comes at the apex of a broad industry awakening on the convergence of technological advancements and the urgency of racial equity in the workplace and beyond.

 

“Our agency is dedicated to improving what it means to be a diverse, inclusive, and valuable partner today, and 100 years from now,” Geheb said. “To that end, we need leaders who bring expertise and perspective in how we harness creativity, technology, and culture. Myron is the very embodiment of forward-thinking leadership, and his broad experience will be a winning combination to better serve our clients and our agency’s ambitions.”

 

King is a veteran of the VMLY&R network, having spent nearly 15 years with the agency. He served most recently as managing director of VMLY&R’s advisory practice, where he led digital transformation efforts. Since joining the agency in 2006, King has played a vital role in helping clients navigate disruption by crafting connected and memorable brand and customer experiences for clients like Bayer, Coca-Cola, ConocoPhillips, Dell, Electrolux, Ford Motor Company, Honeywell, Kellogg, SAP, Sherwin-Williams, and Sprint.

 

“VMLY&R is like family to me,” King said. “Over the years I've watched us grow from 400 employees to over 7,000. We've consistently adapted and evolved to deliver some of the top creative, digital, and consumer-centric marketing solutions in the world. In the process, we've sustained a culture of togetherness and excellence. I’m excited to amplify our organizational design and cultural integration efforts with clients to help make VMLY&R the most diverse, inclusive, and creative agency in the world.”

 

King is highly active in the development of VMLY&R’s culture and employee experience. He is a founding member of the VMLY&R Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee; a Mentor Captain; and an executive sponsor for BIPOC employee resource groups. He earned dual bachelor’s degrees in political science and communication studies from the University of Missouri before completing a master's degree in public policy analysis from the University of Rochester.

 

In his spare time, King volunteers with numerous nonprofits across the U.S. He is a proud member of 100 Roses and AAF-KC. He enjoys traveling with his wife and three adult children and sharpening his musical chops on the drums.

14954: Is The 3% Movement Hijacking The Civil Rights Movement?

Adweek reported Kat Gordon is driving her White women’s bandwagon to the corner of intersectionality in Atlanta. Sorry, but Gordon’s understanding of intersectionality and women of color is, well, less than 3%. And it figures that the 3% Movement’s ride toward true diversity will likely be postponed—and sent into reverse—by COVID-19. Perfect.

3% Conference Heads to Atlanta in Effort to Solidify Commitment to Intersectionality

The organization makes its way south for the first time

By Mary Emily O’Hara

Since its inception nine years ago, the 3% Movement has helped inspire waves of inclusive change across the advertising industry. With a pay equity pledge program, an in-depth agency certification for gender parity and conferences that bring diversity discussions to a massive stage, 3% is changing the game by leveling the playing field.

Founder Kat Gordon told Adweek that after 25 events around the globe, advertising’s most visible gender equality organization is pulling back from its frequent mini-conferences. Instead, the 3% Movement will have one major annual gathering in addition to its “seasonless” work consulting with the industry.

In 2020, the conference will move to Atlanta, bringing its impact to a black-majority Southern city for the first time. The move reflects Atlanta’s growth as an advertising hub and the 3% Movement’s commitment to approaching gender equality through a diverse lens. The city has one of the most visible LGBTQ populations in the country in addition to being a black culture mecca.

“It’s very much a crusade. And the people who come become foot soldiers in the crusade, so we want it to be truly intersectional,” Gordon told Adweek. “We don’t just want women here, and we don’t just want white people here. We want a true representation of the industry, and we want more male attendees as well.”

Gordon launched the 3% Movement after learning that only 3% of creative directors were women, a number that has since gone up to 29% (with Gordon’s work playing no small part.) But she wants to see an industry where women make up at least half of creative directors and where people of color are not only in higher roles but want to stay in those roles.

Focusing on gender parity in advertising means recognizing that some groups of women have unique needs and challenges. That’s why the 3% Movement commissioned the Parenting in Adland report to find out why mothers were under-indexing in the industry. And at the 2019 conference, 3% surveyed attendees to gather demographics. While the majority of attendees self-identified as white females ages 31-50 in senior leadership positions, 39% of people at the conference said their race or ethnicity was black, Latino or other non-white groups. In addition, men made up 21% of attendees, and a few attendees identified themselves as transgender or non-binary. The survey did not include a question about sexual orientation.

“Women aren’t a monolithic group,” Gordon said. “There are groups of women who need extra muscle from 3% applied to make sure they’re heard and celebrated and discoverable for hiring.”

As one of the major advertising hubs in the South, along with Miami, Atlanta agencies struggle with the same diversity and inclusion issues as any agency in New York or Los Angeles. Celeste Hubbard, executive vice president at full-service agency Chemistry, moved to Atlanta four years ago after a stint at 72andSunny’s L.A. office. Hubbard said that while Atlanta is a black-majority city, staffing at agencies has far to go to match the city’s resident makeup, something she believes the agencies are taking into account and working on.

“I think agencies are putting in that effort to recruit, identify and retain talent that comes from multicultural or minority backgrounds,” said Hubbard, noting that Atlanta is more than just home to massive corporate clients like Coca-Cola and Home Depot. It is also home to a groundswell of talent in music, film and television and influencer spaces.

Hubbard said that while agencies are still working on adding and retaining staff of color in Atlanta, it’s common to see agencies there working with “local entrepreneurial production and video content development companies that are often led by African-American young people that are making digestible content for the local digital platforms.”

Atlanta native Shannon Watkins, senior vice president of brand and creative services at Aflac, said that the city’s diversity and its stance as a sort of an outsider to traditional Madison Avenue advertising drive more creativity.

“Women and minorities in creative fields can thrive in Atlanta because the city itself is a creative community that is open to unique points of view,” said Watkins. “As a result, advertisers and marketers can focus on delivering breakthrough work without fear or judgment. And when that happens, creative ideas are delivered in their purest form and have the highest likelihood of breaking through in the marketplace.”

Atlanta is already a hub for women leaders in advertising who consistently push the industry to diversify. The city is home to executives like Ronnie Dickerson-Stewart, chief diversity officer for Publicis Groupe and former diversity and inclusion leader at Digitas, who was given the Nancy Hill award at 3%’s 2019 conference. The city is further drawing talent away from Silicon Valley with the recent move of Kimberly Easley from Facebook to Dentsu Aegis, where she now leads creative and executive talent recruiting.

And in Atlanta, you’ll find agencies like Moxie, which is easily identified as one of the most diverse offices on multiple levels, and women-founded companies like WeAreRosie.

While Atlanta is modeling the 3% mission, it’s not perfect. Hubbard said that women in Atlanta advertising too often work underneath the same glass ceiling that hampers women in other markets.

“When I’m attending client meetings or even when I’m in internal meetings within my own agency, oftentimes, the majority of the participants in the room are women,” Hubbard said. “Women are leading these projects and executing these massive deals and assignments, but then when you look at the vps and executives and higher, you’re not seeing that representation at the same percentage. It’s a complete flip.”

14586: Advertising Industry Boys’ Club Introduces The 97% Movement.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 1, 2019

Former Creative Honchos Launch The 97% Movement

Madison Avenue, New York City, NY — A group of former Executive Creative Directors and Chief Creative Officers launched The 97% Movement, a bold initiative designed to enhance and grow the male majority in the advertising industry. The 97% Movement is aiming for 100% macho dominance in agency creative departments by 2020, according to anonymous reports from Diet Madison Avenue that really pissed off Ralph Watson.

“You can’t be a great creative director and have a baby and keep spending time off every time your kids are ill,” reiterated Neil French. “Everyone who doesn’t commit themselves fully to the job is crap at it.”

The 97% Movement leadership includes Joe Alexander, Tham Khai Meng, Jeremy Perrott, Ted Royer, Eric Springer and Ralph Watson. Gustavo Martinez is overseeing group activities in Spain.

Industry female figures presented varied responses. Cindy Gallop delivered an expletive-filled tirade, Kat Gordon filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement and Jo Wallace declined to comment per the insistence of legal counsel at JWT London. “The 97% Movement has my full support and restless ambition,” gushed Wendy Clark. “Oops. I mean they’re fully reprehensible and reckless assholes.”

###

14485: WPP And POSSIBLE Concede To Being Lousy Losers.

Advertising Age reported POSSIBLE withdrew its legal complaints over the allegedly cheap bid DDB offered to nab the U.S. Army account. Great—now the WPP digital shop can concentrate on enhancing its 3% Certification, which undoubtedly helped the White holding company secure a spot on the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index.

The U.S. Army scenario underscores modern pitch process poopiness, replete with lawsuits, lowballing, lasciviousness and lying. And technically, the actual winner doesn’t even exist, as DDB is still frantically assembling a dedicated team to service the account. Don’t be surprised if Ted Royer joins the ranks.

WPP’s Possible drops complaint over U.S. Army ad business

The filing comes five days after McCann moved to dismiss its own complaint.

By Megan Graham

WPP’s Possible has filed to dismiss its U.S. Court of Federal Claims complaint regarding the U.S. Army agency account, which was awarded to Omnicom’s DDB in November. This comes days after Interpublic Group of Cos. agency McCann moved to dismiss its own complaint, which was originally filed in November.

It appears to signal the end of a long-protracted battle for the sought-after account.

Possible, which fought for the agency account against McCann and DDB, filed its complaint in December. The agency alleged that at the price DDB promised the Army, the Omnicom shop would “likely be unable to perform the basic requirements of the contract.”

It further charged that DDB “could not have offered the levels of innovation that Possible did” at the price it promised. Although the complaint was filed in late December 2018 it was unsealed this month. DDB also filed to intervene as a party defendant on the action.

In a filing Wednesday, Possible submitted a notice of voluntary dismissal “with prejudice of all claims asserted against Defendant United States of America in Possible’s complaint.”

A spokeswoman for Possible declined to comment. A DDB representative could not be immediately reached for comment.

The lucrative Army account went up for review in 2014 but has been extended multiple times along with its contract with McCann. After the business was awarded to Omnicom Group’s DDB in November, McCann filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office, which was ultimately unsuccessful. The GAO denied McCann’s protest bid on the grounds that its submission was incomplete because of a missing disk. McCann then took the matter to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, where it remained until it moved to dismiss last week. People close to the matter told Ad Age McCann’s pulling out had to do with pricing.

News of Possible’s dismissal was first reported Wednesday evening by Adweek.