14372: TBWA\C\D\50 Years Of Exclusivity.

TBWA\Chiat\Day celebrates its 50th anniversary by declaring, “Don’t Do The Right Thing.” Okey-doke.

10418: MGP Beats W+K, GS&P, TBWA, O&M, Etc.

Wanted to add a quick comment on the news involving the Marcus Graham Project and its Locomotus initiative.

According to the Advertising Age story, Lincoln Stephens and his associates have managed to help 38 alumni land agency positions over five years. In any other industry, such a total might seem miniscule—or even pathetic. But for Madison Avenue, it’s nothing short of phenomenal.

Think about it. Has Dan Wieden directly hired 38 non-Whites in his entire career? Has Jeff Goodby met 38 non-Whites? It’s a safe bet that Alex Bogusky can’t personally match Stephens’ feat. Sir John Hegarty could count his receptionists and janitors and probably still not rival the accomplishments of the Marcus Graham Project. Ditto Donny Deutsch, Luke Sullivan, Lee Clow, John Seifert, Mike Hughes, Rick Boyko, Laurence Boschetto, Bob Scarpelli, Howard Draft, Sir Martin Sorrell, Michael Roth, John Wren and Maurice Levy. Hell, can a single Chief Diversity Officer individually boast results like those of Stephens?

Congratulations to Lincoln Stephens and his teammates at the Marcus Graham Project. You guys outdid the best our industry has to offer—and ultimately put them all to shame.

9908: C’MON WHITE MAN! Episode 18.

(MultiCultClassics credits ESPN’s C’MON MAN! for sparking this semi-regular blog series.)

4A’s Agency Thought Leader Compensation Summit allowed a bunch of industry honchos to ponder payment plans between clients and agencies. The headline whiner was TBWA\Worldwide Global Director of Media Arts Lee Clow, who declared, “Unfortunately, in our business, we get paid like we’re doing our clients’ laundry. We haven’t figured out that the ideas that we create can become a very powerful asset to the brands we work for. Many of the ideas—whether they be slogans or advertising forms and styles or a voice that we create for brands—could be listed on the balance sheet of our clients as an asset with millions and millions of dollars in value.”

Gee, it’s always fun to watch a speech about being underpaid delivered by a multimillionaire.

If Clow is truly clueless about the compensation schemes fueling our business, he ought to call Omnicom CEO and President John Wren. Maybe Wren will explain how contracts, cronyism and Corporate Cultural Collusion stifle competition and ultimately turn advertising agencies into generic commodities. Why, just peep PepsiCo and Quaker Oats to realize Omnicom has effectively established that Goodby, Silverstein and Partners and TBWA\Chiat\Day are parity with Juniper Park and Fathom Communications. Plus, it’s a safe bet that Clow received stupid money when his shop was sold to the global holding company. Perhaps “we haven’t figured out that the ideas that we create can become a very powerful asset to the brands we work for” because folks such as Clow were too busy collecting their cuts from corporate mergers and buyouts.

But wait, there’s more. While the iconic White advertising agencies are paid like they’re doing their clients’ laundry, the minority shops are stuck fighting over the lint in the dryer filters. And that’s no ancient Chinese secret, Mr. Lee Clow.

C’MON WHITE MAN!

9078: Speaking French With Modern Mad Men.

Sorry for the Lobsters and beating a dead horse, but wanted to briefly re-examine Neil French and the alleged gender discrimination on Madison Avenue.

To briefly recap, French made sexist comments when asked about the lack of female creative directors during a professional engagement in 2005. French has consistently insisted that he was joking, and that anyone attending the event would have realized it (although a number of people reportedly exited in the middle of French’s presentation—and Nancy Vonk clearly was not amused). According to various sources, French said women usually leave the industry “to go suckle something,” and added, “You can’t be a great creative director and have a baby and keep spending time off every time your kids are ill … Everyone who doesn’t commit themselves fully to the job is crap at it.” French has never denied making these statements, and even defended his position in a later interview by saying, “A belligerent question deserves a belligerent answer. The answer is, They don’t work hard enough. It’s not a joke job. The future of the entire agency is in your hands as creative director.”

At the time of the incident, French was the Worldwide Creative Director for WPP, and he inevitably resigned when the proverbial shit hit the fan. But to be clear, his comments were grounds for dismissal, as one could easily argue that such declarations would create a hostile and discriminatory work environment for women. As WPP Overlord Sir Martin Sorrell recently admitted about his company, “We don’t recruit people very well, we don’t assess them very well, we don’t give them feedback very well.” It would not help the hiring efforts to also be known as a female-unfriendly enterprise.

Given the continuing controversy surrounding gender imbalance on Madison Avenue, at least in regards to creative directors, one must wonder if the people in power (i.e., White men) really think there is an issue. Why? Well, consider this. If French had made the exact same comments and replaced women with Blacks or Latinos, he would have been branded as the Michael Richards of the industry, and probably shunned and condemned by everyone. However, a number of prominent admen have come forward to praise French and his book, including Mike Hughes, David Droga, Mark Tutssel, Bob Scarpelli, Lee Clow, Jeff Goodby and Graham Fink.

So is there a problem with the “dearth of dames” leading creative teams and departments? Or deep down, do modern Mad Men support French’s viewpoint along with his book?

7196: Truth In Advertising…?

Adweek columnist Barbara Lippert wrote an odd piece on the New Yorker Festival panel titled, “Mad Men: Truth in Advertising.” To be clear, Lippert’s writing is not odd; rather, the event seemed peculiar. Moderator and New Yorker contributor Ken Auletta spoke with Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, TBWA\Chiat\Day creative chief Lee Clow and Translation LLC founder and CEO Steve Stoute. Huh? What inspired someone to assemble this group? Weiner and Clow kinda make sense. But it’s unclear why Stoute would round out the trio. Lippert made zero references to him at all, except to list the dude as a participant. Another report on the event by The New York Times advertising columnist Stuart Elliott presented a few more sentences, yet offered nothing substantial from Stoute. If someone attended the soiree, please provide details. For now, it appears to be symbolic of the AMC series. That is, the minorities are bit players uncomfortably propped in the background. Too bad Sanford Moore is likely still recuperating from an auto accident. He would have made a more relevant and lively addition.