The latest Popeyes commercial shows Annie the Chicken Queen holding a press conference to present her Beer Can Rip’N Chicken. Must be a slow news day in Louisiana, as a reporter insists on probing Annie about the lack of beer in her culinary creation. At least he didn’t ask if she used malt liquor.
AgencySpy posted on a story from Australia’s number one news site—news.com.au—detailing how a White advertising agency in Sydney told a Sri Lankan applicant that the company already has enough “brown skin people” on staff. Executives from the shop—Banjo—insist the remark was a “light-hearted” (and probably light-skinned) joke meant to put the job seeker at ease. Guess a firm denial and rejection form letter wouldn’t have sufficed. Of course, Banjo doesn’t hesitate to put Rick Ross on its website to communicate the company’s greatest respect for the diversity of abilities. AgencySpy opened its post by declaring, “As embarrassing as some of the recent controversies surrounding women and people of color in American ad agencies have been, a story from Australia this week pretty much takes the fucking cake.” Um, if AgencySpy were a legitimate trade journal—with actual credibility and expertise in the advertising industry—it would realize the incident from Down Under is a fucking routine occurrence in the United States.
Australian Agency Tells Sri Lankan Applicant That It Already Has Enough ‘Brown People’
By Patrick Coffee
As embarrassing as some of the recent controversies surrounding women and people of color in American ad agencies have been, a story from Australia this week pretty much takes the fucking cake.
Dana McCauley of The News rightly asks, “WHAT is it with advertising agencies this week?” in reporting on an incident that occurred at Banjo, an independent agency based in Sydney that scored coverage in Adweek back in 2009 for a PSA that compared bowel cancer to a terrorist attack.
Freelance account director Surungi Emily Hohol was interviewing for a job at Banjo when, according to a Facebook post quoted by The News, an unnamed senior executive said the following:
“The client might be alarmed by having three brown skin people attend a meeting.”
This executive meant to say that, because the agency already employed two other “Indian” staffers, it would not be offering Hohol a job. (She is Sri Lankan.) It’s unclear whether this individual was referencing a specific client.
After seeing the post, agency managing partner Andrew Varasdi called an emergency meeting and spoke directly to Hohol. The agency now claims—again according to The News—that this was a “light-hearted” joke that led to “an unfortunate misunderstanding.” The agency offered a formal apology and stated that, while the executive in question has not been disciplined, he/she is “deeply upset” and is currently receiving some form of counseling.
The statement also read:
“The senior staff member, who conducted what was a very positive interview, made a casual remark at the end of the interview, which was intended to set the person at ease. Unfortunately it was taken out of context and has since gained some notoriety on social media.”
It’s unclear how this comment could have possibly been intended to make Hohol feel “at ease” given that it meant she would not be getting the job.
Banjo went on to say that it employs a diverse array of talent, adding: “We hope that we will be judged on our record, and that all candidates who consider joining us at Banjo will do so too.”
We have reached out to Hohol on Facebook and will update this post if we hear back from her.
Advertising Age reported Sprite pulled an Irish campaign for being offensively sexist. Hey, cultural cluelessness is a global phenomenon. On a semi-culturally related note, what the hell inspired these offensively awful commercials for Lucky Charms featuring a live Lucky character who comes off like a deviate sex offender? Faith and Begorrah!
Coca-Cola Pulls Offensive Sprite Ad in Ireland
#BrutallyRefreshing Campaign Turns Out To Be #BrutallySexist
By Emma Hall
Coca-Cola Co. has apologized for a blatantly sexist Sprite online ad that ran on Irish men’s lifestyle site JOE.ie as part of the soft drink’s irreverent #BrutallyRefreshing campaign.
Lines such as “She’s seen more ceilings than Michelangelo,” “You’re not popular, you’re easy” and “A 2 at 10 is a 10 at 2!” shocked consumers, who took to social media to vent their anger.
Cristiana De Lia tweeted “Seriously @Sprite? Need to revise your internal policies. This ain’t #BrutallyRefreshing but only #BrutallyOffensive.”
Coca-Cola said in a statement: “We’re sorry for any offense caused by the #BrutallyRefreshing Sprite campaign in Ireland, which was intended to provide an edgy but humorous take on a range of situations. Since its introduction in Ireland, Sprite has been associated with individuality and self-expression and we have always been committed to ensuring we deliver the highest standard of advertising.”
“We recognize that on this particular occasion the content did not meet this standard and we apologize. The campaign has now come to an end and the advert in question will not appear again.”
The campaign asked consumers to share their “refreshing truths” using the hashtag #BrutallyRefreshing.
Coca-Cola and Thinkhouse, an Irish youth marketing agency that works for Sprite and other Coca-Cola brands, did not respond to inquiries about whether Thinkhouse was responsible for the work. A press release about an earlier part of the #BrutallyRefreshing campaign involving Irish Snapchat stars cited Thinkhouse.
That previous installment featured two Snapchat stars in an online video discussing “refreshing truths” such as, “We all have one tight friend,” “One dip is never enough” and, “If you have to give your taxi driver directions you’re better off walking.”
At the time of the ad’s launch, Sprite brand manager Georgina Kendrick said in a statement: “At Sprite, we share the same belief that honesty is the best weapon, and we’re delighted to celebrate the brutally refreshing truth – and hear what our fans come up with.”
Sexism in the ad industry has made headlines all week. Saatchi & Saatchi Chairman Kevin Roberts resigned on Wednesday morning after controversial comments on gender diversity in the ad industry. Meanwhile Gap in the U.K. apologized for an ad that portrayed little girls as social butterflies and little boys as budding Einsteins.
McCann in Uruguay seems to be saying, “I Cann… Deny Diversity.” Then again, the country is 88% White.
Adweek published a patronizing pile of poop in praise of dubious diverted diversity advocates—namely, Nancy Vonk, Nancy Hill and Cindy Gallop. Has Vonk accomplished anything in the name of actual diversity since spanking Neil French in 2005? Hell, did that online event even draw any results for the global cause? Nancy Hill tried to push change. But the leader of a trade organization can only do so much—which ultimately translates to not much. Plus, despite imploring White honchos to assume the role of Chief Diversity Officer for their respective organizations, Hill wound up hiring 4As EVP of Diversity & Inclusion Strategy and Talent Development Singleton Beato—whose previous employer was the wondrously diverse JWT. Meanwhile, Cindy Gallop—who appears to be a sex addict now fighting for the fairer (and fair-skinned) sex—condemned “a rot at the top of the industry spreading and still spreading in the most appalling way.” Yet what diversity achievements did Gallop create while she was among the rotten top at BBH? Sorry, but if The Three Stoogettes are diversity advocates, look forward to many more decades of declining representation for the truly underrepresented.
Are Agencies Finally Ready to Confront the ‘Rot at the Top of the Industry’?
Diversity advocates hope we’ve reached a tipping point
By Katie Richards, Patrick Coffee
The advertising industry’s top women are done mincing words.
“A cancer” is how 4A’s President Nancy Hill describes the agency world’s lingering gender bias and racial insensitivity.
“The industry has a huge diversity problem,” says veteran creative Nancy Vonk.
There is “a rot at the top of the industry spreading and still spreading in the most appalling way, and that is what needs to be stopped in its tracks,” says diversity advocate Cindy Gallop.
Their comments come not after the ouster of one major agency executive, but after the high-profile firings or resignations of no less than four top execs in 2016: Campbell-Ewald’s Jim Palmer, JWT’s Gustavo Martinez, RAPP U.S.’ Alexei Orlov and, most recently, Saatchi & Saatchi’s Kevin Roberts.
Roberts’ resignation amid backlash over his dismissive comments about gender balance seems to be, for many in the industry, a tipping point that is forcing the industry to confront its homogeneity and stubbornly enduring chauvinism.
So is the agency world truly ready to confront its own demons rather than dismissing each ham-tongued CEO’s firing as an “isolated incident”?
Dragging the debate into the light
“I do believe I’ve seen that there has been a more concerted effort to root out all of the cancer and root it out faster, but it’s going to take a while,” said Hill, who as president of the 4A’s represents the interests of agencies across America. “The dominant gender and skin color has been white male for the bulk of this industry’s history.”
There is also, diversity advocates believe, a benefit to having high-profile agency PR disasters like Saatchi chairman Kevin Roberts recently declaring that the gender debate is “over” and saying women are often more content with lower-ranking roles because they lack the “vertical ambition” of men.
This kind of incident sparks global debate and “makes it impossible to ignore that the industry has a huge diversity problem,” says Vonk, who runs Toronto creative leadership consultancy Swim and previously served as creative chief for Ogilvy Toronto.
But even if the industry agrees that it has a problem, what can agencies do in the short term to address it?
How conversation may stave off crisis
If agencies can begin having candid, self-aware discussions about race and gender, it could prevent a disastrous moment of cringeworthy leadership.
Media training on the topic is, while not a solution to the core problem, at least one way of helping executives think more carefully about how they phrase their opinions in public and with their staff.
One female agency executive, who asked to remain anonymous, said she believes Saatchi’s Roberts was largely pilloried because of how he phrased his comments (such as saying “the fucking debate is all over” when asked about gender balance), when he could have found a more reasoned way of explaining how agencies can rethink the way they help female employees with career advancement.
“I feel bad for Kevin,” she said. “One of the main reasons I don’t like to talk about it is that there’s such a good chance that your words will be misconstrued.”
In the end, she said, Saatchi’s parent company had little choice but to disown Roberts, given the industry’s ongoing reputation for insensitivity toward diversity issues.
“He could be a scapegoat, but Publicis can’t afford to piss off so many clients and employees,” the executive said. “What did JWT gain from backing Gustavo Martinez initially? Not a whole lot.”
Media training or sensitivity training won’t solve everything, though.
To Vonk and diversity watchdog Cindy Gallop, Roberts’ ouster was less about poor phrasing than about a clear example of gender bias. The best solution, they argue, is to continue building more diverse leadership teams.
“Kevin Roberts’ belief that women don’t have ‘vertical ambition’ is about ignorance, willful blindness and yes, gender bias,” Vonk said. “And he’s not unique—it’s a view among many older white men at the top who aren’t keeping up the tour. These leaders will keep putting people that look like themselves into top jobs because that’s their comfort level.”
One of the agency world’s best-known female leaders, 360i CEO Sarah Hofstetter, agrees:
”The issue is, what’s going on inside your four walls?” Hofstetter says. “Are we acknowledging what needs to change in the culture of these agencies to attract people of different backgrounds in terms of gender, race and sexual orientation?”
At older shops, legacy can be a liability
For her own agency, Hofstetter said the organization benefits from not being a larger legacy shop, where it seems many of the recent problems have stemmed from. That’s not to say that sexism and racism is absent from other agencies, but “it’s easier when you’re building from scratch rather than inheriting a decades-old infrastructure,” she says. “Wallpaper is the go-to solution: It’s quick and it won’t ruffle any feathers on top. But we were founded as a pure meritocracy.”
What about those larger shops? How are they answering these problems and working to rid itself of the “rot,” as Gallop puts it?
Some larger organizations have found success starting from the top and working down. For IPG, that means a diverse board. Heide Gardner, chief diversity and inclusion officer at IPG, noted “40 percent of our board members are women.” With diverse leadership, many execs argue, comes diverse thought and diverse work for clients.
Finding a path forward
Until there is a balance of all kinds, from gender to ethnicity to sexual orientation at the uppermost levels of these organizations, change is going to be an uphill battle, says 4A’s leader Nancy Hill.
“As I said in March [at the 4A’s Transformation conference] … this has to start at the top and the CEO of any agency needs to consider himself or herself the chief diversity officer. It’s their job. Nobody else’s.”
At the agency level, Gardner noted that some IPG agencies have started “conducting unconscious bias training,” while others “are implementing a blind resume practice in which they eliminate any gender identifiers from resumes” to ensure fairer hiring practices.
After a lengthy career of watching misogyny and other forms of discrimination manifest themselves in the agency world, Vonk says she’s optimistic that change will come—but knows it won’t come easily.
“I was glad to see Publicis respond immediately and decisively, but not many leaders with gender bias announce it to the press. It’s not always easy for a holding company to identify people who are doing active damage to their employees and employers,” Vonk says.
“There’s hard work to be done. When those who reject diversity exit roles of great influence and are replaced with forward thinking leaders, we’ll get somewhere.”
Apple tapped the late Maya Angelou to celebrate diversity with an iPhone commercial titled, “The Human Family”—declaring, “We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.” Okay, but the White advertising agency behind the spot—TBWA Media Arts Lab in Los Angeles—is probably more alike the typical White advertising agency with its exclusivity, my friends.
Campaign reported Sir Martin Sorrell took advantage of the Kevin Roberts fiasco to bash Maurice Lévy, insisting Roberts was parroting Lévy’s cluelessness. There’s definitely some validity to Sorrell’s accusation; however, in this instance, Sorrell critiquing Lévy is like the pot calling the kettle, well, White. After all, while Lévy is tainted by Roberts, Sorrell trumps the Frenchman with Gustavo Martinez and Neil French. More importantly, despite their diverted diversity triumphs, Sorrell and Lévy are equal failures at equality. The two echo each other when it comes to spewing contrived clichés and outright lies regarding real diversity.
Sorrell: Roberts’ gender diversity comments echo Lévy
By Claire Beale
WPP chief executive Martin Sorrell said Saatchi & Saatchi chairman Kevin Roberts “was only echoing the words of his boss” [Publicis Groupe chief executive Maurice Lévy] by saying the gender diversity debate is “over.”
Sorrell told Campaign: “It sounded to me that the Publicis Groupe team coach was only echoing the words of his boss (or is it team manager?) at the 4A’s conference in March, i.e. that there wasn’t a diversity issue in our industry, and that any substance, for example in the Gustavo Martinez case, was an isolated example. I tried to correct that impression at the same conference.
“The Kevin Roberts case, and indeed other examples including the long litigation in the [MSLGroup] case, which was not well reported on, clearly prove it wasn’t and that we’re all suffering from it across the industry.
“More hard work needs to be done to establish even gender balance and that’s not the end. My experience, for what it’s worth, indicates that female leadership is the most effective catalyst.
“By the way, this is not a grumpy old man speaking, just someone closely observing our industry… who would like to see effective change.”
In March, Lévy told an audience at the 4A’s Transformation conference in Miami that allegations of sexism and racism against former JWT Worldwide CEO Gustavo Martinez were “one man’s mistake” and not “exemplary of what’s happening in our industry.” Martinez resigned in March in the wake of a discrimination lawsuit.
Sorrell challenged those remarks at the same conference, accusing Lévy of “ignoring the facts”.
The WPP founder’s latest comments come after Roberts was placed on leave for remarks he made about gender diversity and women’s ambition. In an interview with Business Insider on Friday, Roberts said gender diversity is no longer a problem at his agency and that women didn’t become executives because they were happier in more humble roles.
Publicis Groupe declined to comment on Sorrell’s response and pointed to its previous statement, which distanced the company from Roberts’ views.
In a statement, Publicis Groupe said: “Diversity and inclusion are business imperatives on which Publicis Groupe will not negotiate.
Promoting gender equality starts at the top and the Groupe will not tolerate anyone speaking for our organisation who does not value the importance of inclusion. Publicis Groupe works very hard to champion diversity and will continue to insist that each agency’s leadership be champions of both diversity and inclusion.”
Just wanted to point out that it’s not the first time Business Insider has exposed Kevin Roberts’ peculiar perspectives on employment trends and hiring practices. In 2009, Roberts predicted, “The days of fat and surplus will disappear. Entitlement will disappear … working together will be what makes the difference, not personal gain.” At the time of Roberts’ crystal ball conjecturing, his son was serving as the Talent Director for Saatchi & Saatchi Europe and the Middle East. So for anyone wondering whether or not Roberts is a culturally clueless jackass, well, the fucking debate is all over.
Advertising Age placed a callout announcing Kevin Roberts’ resignation next to a report on plus-size fashion. Would love to hear Roberts’ perspectives on plus-size models.
Advertising Age reported on industry backlash directed towards Saatchi & Saatchi Chairman Kevin Roberts for a Business Insider interview, where Roberts questioned the dearth of dames in adland and declared, “…the fucking debate is all over.” Plus, Roberts admitted he doesn’t spend “any time” on gender issues at Saatchi & Saatchi. Diverted diversity crusaders like Cindy Gallop and PepsiCo Global Beverage Group President Brad Jakeman sprung into action, and Jakeman actually tweeted he was proud not to be a Saatchi & Saatchi client—even though Jakeman conspires with White advertising agencies that are no better. The entire fiasco led to Roberts being asked to take a leave of absence while the Publicis Groupe brass dissed, disavowed and distanced themselves from the dimwit.
Not sure there’s much to add to the criticism and commentary already presented, save for the following two points:
1. Thanks to Roberts, the top four White holding companies each have delivered at least one blatant example of cultural cluelessness in 2016. The other sad scenarios include Campbell Ewald’s Ghetto Days for IPG, Gustavo Martinez unplugged for WPP and Alexei Orlov’s alleged sexist, racist, bullying harassment for Omnicom. When it comes to diversity, Maurice Lévy, Michael Roth, Sir Martin Sorrell and John Wren are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
2. Roberts’ confession that he doesn’t spend “any time” on diverted diversity probably means he spends even less than any time on real diversity. The declining numbers for minority representation in the field confirm Roberts is not alone in his apathy and indifference. So for industry leaders claiming corporate commitment to inclusivity, well, the fucking debate is all over.
Advertising Age reported four Black creative leaders—Keith Cartwright, Geoff Edwards, Jayanta Jenkins and Jimmy Smith—have launched a coalition called Saturday Morning to promote peace and societal change pertaining to racial inequality. The overwhelming majority of the advertising industry will not be involved in the initiative, opting instead to fight to promote White women through diverted diversity.
African-American Creative Leaders Form Advertising Coalition for Peace
Saturday Morning Aims to Promote Societal Change Around Racial Inequality
By Lindsay Stein
Four African-American creative leaders—Keith Cartwright, Geoff Edwards, Jayanta Jenkins and Jimmy Smith—have come together to create a coalition aimed at promoting peace and societal change around racial inequality.
The movement, named Saturday Morning, has a number of goals, such as “raising money for a foundation, helping pass legislation, bringing awareness to a cause or creating a peace-based technology in service of ending the cycle of violence and fear caused by racial bias and injustice,” according to Mr. Cartwright, exec creative director of Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners, in a statement.
Mr. Cartwright, along with Geoff Edwards, creative executive at Creative Artists Agency; Jayanta Jenkins, global creative director at Apple/Beats by Dre; and Jimmy Smith, chairman, CEO and chief creative officer of Amusement Park, will continue serving in their respective roles while working on Saturday Morning. The coalition is currently working on an undisclosed project that it will announce in early Fall.
Representatives from Saturday Morning were not immediately available for an interview.
The coalition was formed after Mr. Cartwright texted Mr. Edwards, Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Smith on a Friday night with a message that said: “We need to come together. And say something.” The following morning, the four creative leaders got together to discuss the racism they’ve experienced over the years and the chance they have to make a difference going forward.
Saturday Morning is “looking to bring all people together to address racism and encourage empathy,” according to a statement; the group has set up an email address at info@saturdaymorning.co.
Last month, Ad Age reached out to a few African-American industry leaders, including Mr. Smith, to ask their thoughts on race in America and recent police-related shootings. In the Q&A, Mr. Smith said, “The question isn’t whether ad agencies should tackle racism and police brutality or not. Agencies absolutely should. But before agencies do tackle the problem, it probably would be a good idea to tackle the racial injustices taking place everyday in their own offices.”
Advertising Age reported on the Corporate Cultural Collusion between IHOP and IPG, with the pancake seller swapping White advertising agencies within the White holding company network. “We thought about other agencies and other resources within IPG before we even thought about going outside of the system,” said IHOP Senior VP-Marketing Kirk Thompson. Yes, heaven forbid one might find something different and better from another White holding company. Guess the colorless, generic degradation of the industry makes all White advertising agencies look alike. The scenario is most outrageous because the account shifted to Campbell Ewald L.A., part of a franchise that recently lost clients as a result of racist rowdiness. Amazingly, Campbell Ewald L.A. has a minority division—sociedAD—to handle Latino marketing for IHOP. Hey, it is the International House Of Pancakes, although sociedAD will soon discover the true value of pancake crumbs.
IHOP Switches IPG Agencies, Hires Campbell Ewald L.A.
After Four Years With Dailey, Pancake Chain Aims to Move ‘at Warp Speed’
By Jessica Wohl
IHOP is hungry for another Interpublic Group agency’s creative approach.
The pancake chain has picked Campbell Ewald L.A. as its new creative agency, replacing Dailey L.A. after a four-year run.
“Those years with Dailey took our work very far forward. It was time to build on that success and pause and think about what’s the best way to take it onto the next level,” Kirk Thompson, senior VP-Marketing, IHOP Restaurants, said in an interview. “We needed to do everything we were doing well at warp speed.”
The change comes after a multi-agency review that took place entirely within IPG, Mr. Thompson said.
“We thought about other agencies and other resources within IPG before we even thought about going outside of the system,” he said, adding that the 58-year old chain wants to build on what it has been doing.
For IHOP, breakfast competition has been heating up. Denny’s, for example, just came out with a new pancake recipe, while McDonald’s has been selling breakfast throughout the day since October. At the same time, potential patrons are being more influenced than ever with messages across TV, print, radio, digital and social.
IHOP has changed agencies a number of times in recent years. It worked with IPG’s McCann L.A. from 2002 through 2007, MDC Partners’ Vitro from 2007 to 2010, then returned to McCann L.A. from 2010 to 2012 before working with Dailey from 2012 until this switch.
IHOP is currently advertising its line of “Paradise Pancakes” for the summer. It has also been promoting itself as the home of Breakfast All Day.
Campbell Ewald’s first work on the brand should break in late September and is expected to include a new tagline, which Mr. Thompson declined to share. IHOP’s new work will also include Hispanic advertising led by sociedAD, part of Campbell Ewald.
“Many of us on the Campbell Ewald team have cherished memories of eating at IHOP with our families and friends and we’re thrilled to bring this overwhelming love that guests and fans have for the iconic brand to life through the creative,” Campbell Ewald CEO Kevin Wertz said in a statement provided by IHOP.
IHOP will continue to work with other IPG agencies as well, MRM/McMCann on digital and social and BPN on media strategy and planning.
Luke Skywalker is taking a break from training Rey to bring Jedi enlightenment to Content Marketing World.
Adweek reported General Mills will hold a closed review for its U.S. creative and content work. The closed review is undoubtedly open to White advertising agencies, as Adweek speculated the competition will include McCann, Saatchi & Saatchi and an unnamed WPP shop. Despite Cheerios’ open-mindedness involving characters of color such as Gracie and Raphaëlle—as well as celebrity shills like Nelly—count on minority contenders to be shut out.
General Mills Launches a Closed U.S. Creative and Content Agency Review
Includes McCann and Saatchi & Saatchi
By Patrick Coffee
Multinational food manufacturing giant General Mills has launched a comprehensive review affecting all of its creative and content agency relationships in the United States. The company, which includes such brands as Cheerios, Yoplait, Quaker Oats, Häagen-Dazs, Betty Crocker, Annie’s and more, is one of America’s largest single advertisers.
“We have a responsibility to ensure we have the right agency partners to continue growing our business and agency reviews are a routine part of running a successful business today,” a General Mills representative said in a statement today.
Details regarding the review remain sparse. The company’s primary U.S. creative agencies are currently IPG’s McCann Worldgroup and Publicis Groupe’s Saatchi & Saatchi, but in the past 18 months alone General Mills has added Fallon, 72andSunny, JWT and Wieden + Kennedy to its roster in varied roles.
The review would appear to be a move toward consolidation on the part of GM, which has been working to cut operational costs across its global organization. Last week, The Wall Street Journal and other publications reported that the company planned to eliminate at least 1,400 jobs across its offices in the U.S., Brazil and China, citing a reduced demand for products such as canned soup across its increasingly health-conscious consumer base. WSJ described this latest round of cuts as “part of a yearslong effort to slash expenses” which is in keeping with similar moves by competitors like Mondelez International.
Sources with direct knowledge of the matter tell Adweek today that the closed review will likely include McCann, Saatchi & Saatchi and an unnamed WPP agency.
Saatchi & Saatchi has been a GM partner agency for more than 35 years. McCann has also worked on brands like Nature Valley and Hamburger Helper for some time, and in 2013 it won Pillsbury away from Saatchi in what a representative described as “a vote of confidence” from the client.
JWT also recently joined the General Mills roster to handle the Häagen-Dazs brand, while the company brought Wieden + Kennedy aboard last year as agency of record for Yoplait. It is unclear whether either of these agencies are participating in the review.
Representatives at McCann and Saatchi & Saatchi declined to comment for this story, while JWT, Wieden + Kennedy, 72andSunny and Fallon had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.
Last year, General Mills launched its first media review in more than a decade, eventually choosing WPP’s Mindshare as its U.S. agency of record. The company spent just under $700 million on measured media in 2015 and $186 million in the first quarter of 2016, according to the most recent numbers available from Kantar Media. These totals mark a decline from 2014, when General Mills spent a total of $850 million.
Campaign posted patronizing propaganda from JWT London Co-Director of Talent Kate Bruges, who gushed about all the wondrous programmes the agency has in place to foster diversity. The only thing missing is, well, actual diversity. Why, the editorial is even illustrated with a stock photo (above) featuring White people. Bruges’ perspective falls apart from the start, as the title reads, “Diversity of talent leads to diversity of thought”—which remains the standard cliché of a dream deferred, diverted and denied. The exposition also includes the latest cliché in the global conversation—Unconscious Bias—which Bruges spells out with initial caps. If you’ve been aware of a problem for decades, yet haven’t actively addressed it, can you really hide behind the “unconscious” notion? Honestly, at least former JWT honcho Gustavo Martinez was open about his ignorance. Speaking of Mr. Martinez, what’s the status of the lawsuit from Erin Johnson? Maybe Bruges’ public announcements are part of a settlement…?
Diversity of talent leads to diversity of thought
A view from Kate Bruges
In our creative industry diversity of thought comes from diversity of talent, it’s as simple as that, writes Kate Bruges, the co-director of talent at JWT London
Recently the industry has woken up to diversity in a big way. Tom Knox, the current IPA President has put it centre stage and in partnership with Campaign has made an important step by publishing the agencies’ own diversity statistics.
Nothing like some healthy competition to get agencies to sit up, take notice and change. Great initiatives like the 3% Conference have put the spotlight on the lack of female creatives at the heart of our industry and our industry’s output.
J Walter Thompson’s Female Tribes work puts the economic worth of women, Female Capital, centre stage. Many companies talk a good game now on Diversity. The benefits of a diverse workforce are well rehearsed. From McKinsey to Harvard Business Review, Facebook to Google, it’s unarguable.
However, this effort needs to be organic, joined up and right at the heart of an agency’s culture. It’s no use reaching out to attract a wider socio-economic and geographic group if your internships and work experience positions remain unpaid (and no, covering expenses isn’t enough).
Only those with family support, whether financial or the provision of a London roof over their heads, can possibly survive. So we pay our interns and offer around 100 every year. It’s no use reaching out to attract a wider socio-economic and geographic group if your internships and work experience positions remain unpaid (and no, covering expenses isn’t enough).
We believe opening up access to as many as possible by offering two-week paid positions all year round is the best way to lift the veil on an industry that has remained something of a closed shop — the roles known only to those who already have family and friends’ connections with the industry.
It’s no use inviting a broader base of talent, not defined primarily by university degree, to apply for positions if the CV remains central to initial screening. Unconscious bias means that with the best will in the world, we quickly make assumptions about others based upon a limited amount of information.
We can have a tendency to hire in our own image and our personal definition of success. This can mean we revert to the academic and work-experience rich traditional CV as a reliable shorthand to sift from the hundreds of applicants to those favoured for interview.
Our own Pioneers Programme is open to everyone, not just graduates, and takes a blind approach, looking only at answers to six questions to screen applicants for that crucial first interview.
Importantly it also steps outside the standard milk round timing of traditional graduate recruitment programmes. Our Pioneers Programme is open for applications now and successful candidates will start in January.
And when our Pioneers arrive we want them to see that it’s possible to have a great and rewarding career in our industry whatever your lifestage. Many female applicants for example will already be taking into consideration how their careers will develop should they start families.
But it’s no use supporting mums through better maternity policies if fathers are left out of the equation. It’s then still Mum that is seen to bear the burden and pay the career progression price. The focus must always be on attractive family friendly policies to support mothers and fathers in combining family life and career and the language around this is of real importance.
So, we don’t have a JWT Mums group but we do have JWTFamily, a support group for everyone doing the juggling act that is family and creative advertising.
And finally it’s no use encouraging talent at different life stages, who live in different places and have different passions that positively inform their work if the underlying culture is about five days a week presenteeism.
Shift the focus to productivity and output and let that be the key performance metric. This is what makes sense, attracts and excites the diversity of talent we need in our industry. Obviously all of the above is work in progress, here and across the industry but even beginning the journey is a huge step.
Diversity has to be top of the agenda, joined up, at the very heart of the agency’s culture and more importantly, practices, and understanding and calling out Unconscious Bias the personal responsibility of everyone.
Adweek reported Rauxa, the industry’s largest independent woman-owned agency, hired its first Chief Creative Officer—who just happens to be a White woman. Is it double diverted diversity if White women perpetuate the promotion of White women? The 3% Conference must be experiencing multiple orgasms over the news. A peek at Rauxa’s people, however, shows the place looks like a typical White advertising agency.
Rauxa, the Industry’s Largest Woman-Owned Agency, Names First Chief Creative Officer
Kate Daggett will take on the new role
By Patrick Coffee
Rauxa, a California-based full-service marketing agency, announced the hiring of Kate Daggett as its first chief creative officer on the same day it certified its status as the the largest independent agency currently owned by a woman.
Daggett brings more than 15 years of agency experience to the new role, which will see her leading Rauxa’s creative teams across the country while working out of its New York office.
Before joining Rauxa, she served as executive creative director at Tenthwave Digital, a New York-based agency that was acquired by Wire Stone earlier this year. During her three-year tenure at Tenthwave, Daggett helped build the agency’s creative department, led several successful pitches and played a key role in facilitating the acquisition. Previous roles include vp, group creative director at Digitas, where she ran the American Express account, along with creative director positions at TBWA\Chiat\Day New York and Agency.com.
“We may be an unknown agency now, but won’t be for long,” Daggett told Adweek about her new employer. “When I was considering joining Rauxa I did my research and actually spoke with agency folks who’d worked with them on shared business. I even called one of their past clients. The feedback I got was consistent. People said that they are an impressive agency, filled with smart people, which was a wonderful confirmation that Rauxa is an agency ready to compete on a bigger level.”
“We are huge fans of Kate’s work, leadership, innovative spirit and integrity,” said Rauxa chief strategy officer Ian Baer. “We’re excited about evolving our creative offering and thrilled that Kate is calling Rauxa home.”
Direct Mail veteran Jill Gwaltney founded the agency in Costa Mesa, Calif., in 1999. Since then, the shop has expanded to include six offices and 230 employees across the United States. Its current client list includes Gap, Alaska Airlines, Allergan, Blue Shield of California and Verizon, which consolidated direct marketing duties for the FiOS portion of its business with Rauxa earlier this year. The agency has been largely defined by its data-driven approach to creative work.
Today Rauxa also used data drawn from Ad Age’s 2016 Agency Report to tout its status as the industry’s largest independent agency owned by a woman.
“Being independent means that we report to no one but our clients, allowing us to devise and deliver the very best solutions for them,” said agency CEO Gina Alshuler in a statement. The executive, who took over for Gwaltney last year after working in accounts, added, “Being woman-owned and woman-led instills the team with a powerful combination of empathy and grit that has built enduring relationships with clients, partners and colleagues.”
Daggett added, “As a female creative, it’s hard not to love the fact that Rauxa is predominantly female-led. But beyond that, I saw an independent spirit and a deeply-routed tenacity in Rauxa that was exciting. We’re going to make to make exceptional, award-winning work that will undoubtedly drive our clients’ business amidst a rapidly evolving world—and we’re going to have a lot of fun while doing it.”
Not too sure about this Communities for Development video from DUDE in Italy. The philanthropic initiative undoubtedly has good intentions. Yet the depicted Ugandans come off as primitive versus progressive. The comparisons to Silicon Valley have added clumsiness, as the technology community has admitted to a digital dearth of diversity in its ranks. Oh, and DUDE—demonstrated by the people page on its website—looks far more like Silicon Valley than Bulambuli Valley.
PRWeek asked experts to critique Black Lives Matter from a communications perspective. However, it was a segregated group of professional judges, mostly from minority advertising and marketing enterprises. Why weren’t any White experts tapped for an opinion? Also, are multicultural marketing executives really in any position to rate the grassroots movement when their own discipline is sorely lacking promotional effectiveness and focus? Adpeople of color, heal thyself.
Experts: Black Lives Matter’s decentralized structure is holding it back
By Chris Daniels
Communications pros praised the grassroots organization’s passion and use of social media, but said its lack of centralization is hindering its response to critics and the mainstream press.
Just over a week after the killing of five police officers during a rally in Dallas, experts say Black Lives Matter is at a critical point in its history.
Four years after its founding, the grassroots movement remains polarizing. Politicians, celebrities, and other newsmakers have passionately weighed in both in support of and against the group — or at least its rallying cry — and it has also generated sometimes sensational headlines in the media.
Founded as a hashtag by three citizens following the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the 2012 shooting death of 17-year-old African-American Trayvon Martin, Black Lives Matter is very much a grassroots organization. Shanelle Matthews, the San Francisco-based director of communications for Black Lives Matter, was unavailable for comment before press time, but earlier this year she told PRWeek that its more than 30 chapters work mostly autonomously with the goal of rebuilding “the black liberation movement and [to] affirm the lives of all black people.”
In particular, the organization has focused on advocating for “those marginalized within black liberation movements.”
But has it been successful?
A just-released poll from the Pew Research Center, conducted from February 29 to May 8, shows diverging attitudes, awareness, and understanding of Black Lives Matter. Roughly four-in-10 Americans back the movement, with support highest among blacks (65%, versus 40% for whites), Democrats (64%, against 20% for Republicans), and adults younger than 30 (at about six-in-10).
More than a third (36%) of people familiar with Black Lives Matter say they don’t understand the organization’s goals. Another 30% had either not heard of it or nor did they have an opinion.
Has Black Lives Matter lost control of the message?
On social media, critics of the group have responded with the hashtag “#AllLivesMatter,” believing the term “Black Lives Matter” devalues other races. Meanwhile, some newsmakers, from presidential candidate Donald Trump to conservative radio host Glenn Beck, have argued that the name of the movement is divisive.
Others believe the movement will fail to gather support resulting in serious reform.
However, the communications experts interviewed by PRWeek reject that assertion, saying any challenge the organization has in gaining widespread public support stems from other issues, including its decentralized structure. They also say mainstream media coverage has been biased against it, sensational, or knee-jerk.
Kim Hunter, president and CEO of Lagrant Communications, says Black Lives Matter is well intended, noting “that as an African-American male, believe me, I understand the rationale for the creation of the organization. I have been harassed and pulled over by police without reason, and I have no illusion that it was because of the color of my skin.”
However, he says the group’s honorable intentions have not been well-communicated to the general public. As a result, there is confusion, disruption, and misrepresentation of what Black Lives Matter actually stands for among newsmakers and the media, he contends.
“I think the fact that it is a grassroots organization is a good thing, but they can be more systematic, procedural, and defined in their approach,” says Hunter. “Many of their spokespeople are inconsistent with their messaging. If they are truly going to have an impact, they need to be better formalized in what they want to achieve.”
He adds that the organization should align with allies and credible spokespeople who could help it gain better leverage in the media and help with clarity of message.
“They need sophisticated groups and individual stakeholders who are passionate about what Black Lives Matter wants to achieve and who are part of the organization,” he explains. “But I don’t know a single person who is a part of it right now.”
Fay Ferguson, co-CEO of trans-cultural communications firm Burrell, agrees that for Black Lives Matter to advance its goals for reform, it should build one unified organization to oversee messaging. She calls centralization crucial, given the dissenting views.
“I understand the need for local chapters, so that people can get into the streets because that’s where things happen. But I think they also need a unified structure around the organization to help control content and messaging, because anyone can put their spin on it right now,” notes Ferguson.
She notes that it should step up sit-down meetings with police departments nationwide. “That to me is the missing piece,” Ferguson says. “They need to take the movement from protesting to conversation and making real change.”
Still, she applauds the “excellent job” Black Lives Matter has done to bring the issue of injustice against black Americans to the forefront, which is what it set out to do.
“They have been very good at activating youth of all cultures and backgrounds, which I think is important because this isn’t a black problem; it really is an American problem,” says Ferguson. “They’ve also been really good at using social media; their Twitter handle is always active with posts and responses.”
Media bias
Neil Foote, president of the National Black Public Relations Society, says the biggest challenge the movement faces is biased and sensational media coverage. News articles often connect the Black Lives Matter movement to people who have used violence, even if there is no affiliation.
“There have been some negative things that have been assigned to the Black Lives Matter brand, which they will just have to overcome,” says Foote, who also owns the firm Foote Communications. “They have to keep communicating that they are a non-violent group and that they are working for change. The next thing for them will be to communicate what those specific changes should be.”
While the NBPRS does not have a formal relationship with Black Lives Matter, it has discussed various issues with chapters around the country. The organization also plans to address how African-Americans are portrayed in the media at its national conference in Chicago at the end of October.
“Clearly, the bigger issue that Black Lives Matter gets at is how African-Americans are portrayed in the media, which is to say in a negative and perpetuating way,” says Foote.
Zandra Zuno Baermann, executive director and multicultural marketing practice lead at Golin, agrees that the mainstream media has done Black Lives Matter no favors. She argues that, generally speaking, the press does a poor job addressing issues facing people of color.
“This is a reflection, to a certain point, on the lack of diversity that exists in newsrooms and the limited understanding of not only the issues, but also the context and historical background,” says Zuno Baermann. “What we see covered in mainstream media are moments-in-time versus the overall Black Lives Matter movement. The coverage is still very much on the surface with a tendency for media to shift coverage to what is breaking news, versus really taking that deeper dive.”
Campaign published an unintentionally hilarious perspective from Gideon Spanier, who insists advertising executives “must start talking to end crisis of trust.” Um, does Spanier realize that—among the least-trusted professions—advertising practitioners typically rank alongside used car salesmen? Trusted adman is an oxymoron. And Spanier is an ordinary moron. Actually, he’s a trade journalist, so maybe his cluelessness can be excused. He’s clearly spending too much time hearing the whines of White advertising agency executives. For example, Spanier drones on about the evils of procurement on the client side. Yet he doesn’t seem to realize the big agencies—especially those tied to holding companies—are just as bad. That is, the advertising agency procurement police are dictating exactly how much money will be allocated for all agency expenditures. Minimal dollar values are now assigned to everything from FTEs to RFPs to LOEs. Above-the-line initiatives receive below-the-line resources. Billable hours trump big ideas. The advertising industry is not facing a trust crisis; rather, it’s a financial crisis.
The ad industry must start talking to end crisis of trust
Advertising is an industry built on long-term relationships and it is in need of counselling.
By Gideon Spanier
Both sides are to blame. Marketers want more for less and their procurement departments have been squeezing media agencies’ margins for years. At the same time, agencies have turned to less transparent ways to make money such as rebates and acting as principal.
The widely accepted narrative is that media agencies have kept one step ahead of marketers, which is why ISBA and the Association of National Advertisers, the trade bodies for advertisers in the UK and the US, have urged members to tighten up their contracts with agencies. But marketers must accept some responsibility. It’s absurd that ISBA and the ANA, and their counterparts on the agency side, have barely been on speaking terms.
Hostilities show little sign of improving as Group M has been asking pointed questions about the role of media auditors, which advise clients on how their agency is spending their money.
All this needs to be seen in the context that, contrary to what some think, the media agency business model is hurting. According to Kingston Smith, margins at the big UK media agency groups fell below 13% last year. That’s a big drop from 15.6% in 2014 and the average of 18% since 2000.
The way forward for agencies must be to move into higher-value consulting services, which is what marketers say they want. The problem is that when procurement strikes, price becomes the deciding factor.
When Volkswagen Group recently reviewed its media, it staged an e-auction. MediaCom, the incumbent, was said to be furious because only it knew the real prices that it was being asked to discount against while rivals were offering discounts “blind”.
Stephen Allan, global boss of MediaCom, won’t comment about Volkswagen but says more broadly: “Do you want to treat agencies like vendors or like agencies — what is it?”
Procurement has a role to play. Marc Pritchard, chief marketing officer at Procter & Gamble, makes a good point when he says procurement should take a more public role in this discussion.
But, ultimately, it’s about advertisers and agencies needing to treat each other with honesty — a key theme from an Oystercatchers debate last week, where it emerged that most advertisers wildly underestimated just how costly it is for an agency to pitch.
This is the communications business. It shouldn’t be so hard to talk.
Responding in part to the phenomena of Black Lives Matter, Advertising Age interviewed Translation Founder and CEO Steve Stoute, Amusement Park Entertainment CEO and Chief Creative Officer Jimmy Smith, 135th Street Agency Founder and CEO Shante Bacon and MING Utility and Entertainment Group President Tara DeVeaux. Here’s an excerpt from Stoute’s statements:
At the root of any societal issue is human truth, especially those truths we find hard to confront. The advertising business has always been about telling stories around human truths, and making those stories accessible to and consumable by the masses.Today, the truth is that racism is alive and well in this country. The truth is that due to ignorance, lack of education and socially conditioned prejudice, the value of a black life is still being questioned.
How can we as a community come together to speak out against racial injustice, when we perpetuate that very injustice within the walls of our own agencies? We can never properly use the power of this platform as long as the industry continues to perpetuate the same cycle while justifying a lack of diversity not only throughout hiring practices, but in the work that we create.
Just take a look at the numbers—only about 5.85% of the advertising world is made up of African-Americans, and it is the only minority group to have seen a decrease in representation over the last four years. African-American men are one the most underrepresented groups in the entire industry, at just 2.58%. It doesn’t have to be this way.
I want to challenge all agency leads to execute a company-wide diversity check and strategize on creating pathways to improve the diversity of their staff and by extension, the creative. This is not just about diversity in terms of race, but a diversity of perspective.
African-Americans, women and other minorities have so many barriers to entry, and if those walls were torn down, they would bring so much to this community and to the work. In these trying times, we must come together to end racism in all of the places it lives. We cannot be afraid to start that fight in our own backyards.
Does Advertising Age’s decision to create and publish such content help from a diversity standpoint? It’s hard to say. In an industry where cultural cluelessness is so prevalent, White people might not even know how to process the color commentary. Not sure why Advertising Age kept the conversation segregated. Given the Wieden + Kennedy response to recent events, it would have been interesting to get Dan Wieden’s viewpoint—which would hopefully be more thoughtful than gasping, “Now that’s fucked up!” Or maybe have Jeff Goodby wonder, “Why are all the Black people getting shot?”
Advertising Age posted a Bloomberg News story on racist attacks via Twitter against Leslie Jones, with USA TODAY and other sources supplying more details on the ugly scenario. Jones received support from the public, celebrities and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Not sure if Allstate has extended its Good Hands® to the actress.
Twitter Bans a Breitbart Editor for Leading Abuse Campaign Against Actress Leslie Jones
‘Ghostbusters’ Star Says She’s Quitting Twitter After Flood of Hateful Messages
Twitter promised to strengthen its rules and procedures in order to curb targeted abuse against users, beginning with a ban against Milo Yiannopoulos, technology editor for the conservative news website Breitbart.
Known by his Twitter handle @Nero, Mr. Yiannopoulos is accused of leading an online campaign of racial and sexual taunts against Leslie Jones, who appeared in the “Ghostbusters” remake last week. Fed up with the abuse, Ms. Jones said Tuesday that she was leaving Twitter for good.
“No one deserves to be subjected to targeted abuse online, and our rules prohibit inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or harassment of others,” Nu Wexler, a spokesman for San Francisco-based Twitter, said in a statement. “Over the past 48 hours in particular, we’ve seen an uptick in the number of accounts violating these policies and have taken enforcement actions against these accounts, ranging from warnings that also require the deletion of Tweets violating our policies to permanent suspension.”
Mr. Yiannopoulos, who had more than 338,000 followers on Twitter, responded in a comment on Breitbart, saying that Twitter’s actions violated the right to free speech.
“With the cowardly suspension of my account, Twitter has confirmed itself as a safe space for Muslim terrorists and Black Lives Matter extremists, but a no-go zone for conservatives,” Mr. Yiannopoulos said. “This is the end for Twitter. Anyone who cares about free speech has been sent a clear message: you’re not welcome on Twitter.”
Ms. Jones’s departure and the ban followed an attempt by Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s CEO, to resolve the situation. Earlier, he had reached out directly to the actress:
Twitter has struggled to balance its desire to provide an open forum for all views, while keeping it from becoming a deafening megaphone for people seeking to harass another user. In January, Twitter took the step of removing Mr. Yiannopoulos’s verification—the blue check denoting an authenticated account—but did not go any further. Last month, Omid Kordestani, Twitter’s executive chairman stressed that all voices were needed, even amid hateful rhetoric.
In any case of blocking a Twitter user, the decision is subjective, after review of user reports sent to the company about abusive behavior. Mr. Yiannopoulos’s supporters are saying that Twitter’s actions show an anti-conservative bias, and are unearthing controversial tweets that didn’t get blocked.
Making Twitter safer from those who harass and make threats is one of Mr. Dorsey’s top five priorities for the year, and he has vowed to get tougher on trolls. Now, Twitter said it will take a closer look at how it polices abusive behavior.
“We know many people believe we have not done enough to curb this type of behavior on Twitter,” Mr. Wexler said. “We agree. We are continuing to invest heavily in improving our tools and enforcement systems to better allow us to identify and take faster action on abuse as it’s happening and prevent repeat offenders.” Twitter would seek to reduce “the burden on the person being targeted,” he said. “We’ll provide more details on those changes in the coming weeks.”
Bloomberg News
This ADT campaign is not new, but what compelled the White advertising agency to select Ving Rhames as a spokesman? Will Rhames get medieval on your ass if you dare to challenge ADT home security?
Campaign reported JWT London will seek to address diversity via a “blind recruitment” scheme for entry-level candidates. While candidates will still have to submit a CV, it won’t be reviewed until later in the process because JWT admits “submitting a CV limits diversity of opportunity to enter the advertising industry.” Um, is that a confession of biased and discriminatory hiring practices? The contrived tactic is screwy on a number of fronts. First, it ignores the bigger problem regarding a lack of mid- and senior-level minority talent, who will presumably continue to face rejection in epic style. The mystery arrangement also ignores the issues of cultural differences; that is, minority newbies may be inserted into an exclusive environment that isn’t equipped or qualified to welcome them. In the end, JWT doesn’t need a “blind” program. Rather, the White agency needs a curriculum to reform the deaf and dumb discriminators. Oh, and all successful job applicants will win a blind date with Gustavo Martinez.
JWT London to use ‘blind recruitment’ for entry-level hires
J Walter Thompson London has pledged to use a “blind recruitment” approach in its next round of hiring at entry level as the WPP agency seeks to improve its diversity.
By Omar Oakes
The recruitment scheme, called JWT Pioneers, has up until now sought graduates, but the agency is now seeking applicants from a wider range of backgrounds.
Applicants will be still be asked to submit a CV, but the agency said this will no longer be looked at until the candidates are whittled down to a much later stage. Instead, applicants will now be asked to answer six questions which will be used to assess them for interview selection. JWT said submitting a CV limits diversity of opportunity to enter the advertising industry.
JWT has also widened the scope of roles being offered. As well as traditional roles in account management, planning and creative production, the agency is also looking for applicants with any background who could specialise in shopper marketing, CRM or insight and analytics.
Tamara Ingram, the global chief executive of JWT, said diversity and inclusion would be top of her agenda when she took the job in March. Ingram replaced Gustavo Martinez, who had resigned following accusations of sexism and racism made in a discrimination lawsuit.
The WPP shop will take applications until 12 September, interview candidates in mid-October, and look to have new starters beginning work in January 2017.
Kate Bruges, co-director of talent at JWT London, said: “We know that talent comes in a huge variety of forms and from different backgrounds and generations. You might be a recent graduate, a school leaver or, alternatively, you might have been working for a few years and realise you yearn to do something more creative.
“We really don’t mind what your background is and whether your interest is in analytics, PR or film — what matters to us is that you are curious, courageous, capable and collaborative.”
