Advertising Age reported on a culturally clueless incident at McCann New York, where former Co-Chief Creative Officer Pierre Lipton made an “inappropriate” statement during a DEI event.
The scenario unfolded on September 14 at the White advertising agency’s fifth annual Day for Meaning, a heat shield soiree designed to brainstorm ideas for recognizing and eradicating unconscious bias. Lipton managed to underscore the need for such endeavors by typing that he felt “so fucking bored” in the comments of a related video meeting, effectively exposing and ratifying unconscious bias.
McCann re-assigned Lipton to another role and placed him on a two-week unpaid leave of absence “to consider the full effect of his words”—perhaps even suggesting that he seek counsel from Stan Richards or ex-McCann Health CCO Jeremy Perrott…? Just a thought.
Lipton’s declaration arguably qualifies as passive bias or deceptive bias. For clarification, take a stroll down Memory Lane and review MultiCultClassics’ inaugural post. Ad Age also revealed that Lipton had only intended his remark for a single recipient, accidentally sending it companywide—so he might fall into the active bias category. In short, Lipton’s alleged inappropriateness displays bias, compounded by racist ignorance.
If racist ignorance seems too harsh an accusation, think about how Lipton perfectly represents his White advertising agency and Adland at large. That is, he’s grown disinterested in the quest for equality—provided his dedication to the cause was not performative patronization. Hey, Lipton’s flub constitutes an embarrassing twist on McCann’s “Truth Well Told” slogan.
Lipton could be labeled anti-antiracist, a double negative that’s a double whammy for a leader employed by a firm claiming to embrace countering values, which happens to be part of IPG, a White holding company historically bragging about being recognized for leadership in diversity and inclusion.
At some point, the players in this scenario will have to show integrity, talk the talk, and walk the walk. It could start by demanding that Lipton take a walk.
McCann Exec Made ‘Inappropriate’ Remark During Inclusion Session
Pierre Lipton’s comment during agency’s ‘Day for Meaning’ sparks two-week leave and job change
By Judann Pollack
McCann is publicly explaining the actions it took, including moving Pierre Lipton to a new role “while he works to further develop his skills as an executive,” weeks after he made what some people interpreted as a racially insensitive remark during an internal agency meeting intended to find ways to recognize and eradicate unconscious bias.
On Sept. 14, Interpublic Group of Cos.-owned McCann was observing its fifth annual Day for Meaning, in which the entire agency takes a day to reflect on solving racial inequities and participate in workshops, surveys and meetings in pursuit of, in the agency’s words, fostering “a climate of inclusion” at McCann and the world at large.
During the virtual presentation, Lipton, then co-chief creative officer for McCann New York, typed into the comments that he was “so fucking bored,” according to multiple people familiar with the incident.
McCann announced Lipton’s move from co-chief creative officer of McCann New York to global executive creative director of McCann Worldgroup on Oct. 5. Soon, people began dissecting the shift on social media, with one person outside the agency posting on LinkedIn on Saturday that McCann is protecting “a parochial racist.”
In response to Ad Age’s queries, McCann laid out the decisions it said it made in the wake of the typed comment, which it called “disrespectful.”
Amber Guild, CEO of McCann New York, sent a note to staff on Sept. 14 acknowledging Lipton’s behavior, the agency said. McCann also said it held a town hall the following day, in which it called out the incident as disrespectful, inappropriate and unprofessional. Lipton issued a public apology to the agency, McCann said.
The following week, on Sept. 19, Guild sent an email to McCann employees that read in part: “In talking with Pierre this weekend, I suggested, and Pierre agreed, that he should take some time away to reflect on his comment and its impact on the community. So, as of today, Pierre is taking a leave of absence for two weeks to consider the full effect of his words, and the power and responsibility of his position as CCO with regard to being a positive force for conscious inclusion in the company, and one whose leadership behaviors model our values.”
The note continued: “During that time, I’ll be working with our leadership team to continue to review the feedback we have and are receiving, the Belong and Pulse survey results, and other measures to identify and create an action plan for our company—one that starts with our leadership and one that includes accountability. This will include measures like conscious inclusion scores being tied to leadership bonus structure, an inclusive leadership curriculum … as well as everyone receiving regular feedback, among other measures.”
Then, on Oct. 5, McCann announced a trio of executive shifts, and Lipton was among them: Shannon Washington joining from R/GA to become global chief creative officer of Gotham, Shayne Millington moving from co-chief creative officer to CCO of McCann New York and Lipton being named global executive creative officer of McCann Worldgroup.
‘Inappropriate, dismissive and not consistent with our values’
The agency today issued a statement to Ad Age regarding the move.
“During our annual Day for Meaning at McCann Worldgroup, a day that the global network focuses on driving a culture of inclusion, Pierre Lipton made a disrespectful comment in the chat during the New York session that was intended for one individual but went to the entire agency by mistake,” it read. “It was inappropriate, dismissive and not consistent with our values or our expectations of leaders within the company. We addressed this with the agency that night in writing and in a town hall the next day; Pierre personally apologized and went on a two-week unpaid leave of absence while we conducted an investigation into the incident.”
It continued: “Following the investigation, we determined that Pierre was not consistently modeling the behaviors that we feel are critical in an agency-specific leadership role and made the decision to remove him from the role of co-CCO of McCann New York to a role as a global executive creative director that focuses his talent on craft and global brands, while he works to further develop his skills as an executive.”
The agency’s statement said, “We have been purposeful in addressing this directly and forthrightly with the agency, while also taking the time to ensure we are not making decisions without a full assessment of the core issues. Ultimately, we unearthed that we have more work to do in our systems and structures to ensure inclusive leadership behaviors, but believe this structure brings clarity and puts our leaders and our people in the best position to move forward.”
The company also sent a statement from Guild.
“As a Black woman, I understand deeply what words like those could mean for my organization and for people who look like me,” it said. “Therefore, it was critical that we were purposeful and not reactive after the incident. We immediately communicated to the company that Pierre did not model the behaviors that are aligned to our values and soon after let the company know he was put on leave for two weeks while we investigated the incident. We have since asked him to step down from executive leadership team of the New York office while he works on his growth and development in a role that is focused on creative craft. We are a new executive leadership team for McCann New York, and this incident has unearthed opportunity for us to put more systems and structures in place to ensure we are a consciously inclusive workplace culture where we can all do our best work.”
Others react
As news of the incident spread, Mosito Ramaili, managing director of the BoSabi Creative Club and a former executive at BBDO, Droga5 and Nike, wrote on his LinkedIn page that McCann was concealing “a tone deaf racist within their ranks,” and wrote, in reference to Washington, that “moving a [Black woman] into the firing line will not be the solution to your pathetic leadership.”
Ramaili’s post received 63 reactions and multiple comments as of late Sunday afternoon.
In a phone interview, Ramaili said that the agency’s actions are insufficient. “To say that it has been dealt with is seeing that through the lens of white people,” he said. “People don’t have the right to tell people what is racist and what is not.”
Ramaili said that he had a friend on the McCann call, “a non-white person who thought they were finally given a voice,” during the Day for Meaning, until she read what he called “the violence of those words.”
Among the responses to Ramaili’s LinkedIn post was one from Walter T. Geer III, chief experience design officer of VMLY&R.
“Brother…do not judge until you know the facts,” Geer wrote on Sunday. “I know the facts. And I know the Black woman that runs [McCann] NY. She did everything right and I [will thoroughly] stand behind her 1000%. Check my record on these things. I would not stick my neck out on this kind of topic unless I thoroughly know. And I do.”
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