13715: ESPN BS.

This Brazilian campaign for ESPN is bullshit—especially considering the fact that the sports network likely presents a disproportionately higher amount of men’s sports coverage versus women’s sports coverage. Plus, the amount of coverage has nothing to do with gender bias. Rather, it’s all about audience appeal and advertising budgets. Finally, it’s common knowledge that women’s sports will gain greater audience interest when there’s greater mob interest; that is, when spectators are placing serious bets on scores and outcomes.

13714: Domino Doesn’t Deliver.

This Nestlé public service campaign from India doesn’t seem to understand the domino effect—it looks like education starts the tumble to misery.

13713: Half-Assed Effort Via BBDO.

Advertising Age reported on a half-assed stunt offering half-time roles to keep White women staffers at AMV BBDO in London. Oddly enough, the story featured a photograph (depicted above) spotlighting two White men. Regardless, it demonstrates again the extension of diverted diversity, where even part-time females receive preferential treatment over minorities. Maybe AMV BBDO could adopt a Three-Fifths Compromise approach, allowing Blacks to work 3/5 days—and earn 3/5 of what White women are paid.

This BBDO Agency Is Offering Half-Time Roles to Retain Female Creative Talent

By Alexandra Jardine

London agency AMV BBDO is creating a number of permanent half-time roles for female creatives in a bid to retain talent in its creative department.

The shop, whose clients include Pepsi, Mars and Guinness, is currently recruiting for eight to 10 half-time roles for its creative department, with a view to rolling the program out across other departments in the future. The roles will be built around half the working hours required in standard working contracts.

The aim is to identify the best creative talents who may have taken a career break. Male parents who are in a primary care role and are attempting to return to work are also eligible to apply.

Executive creative directors Adrian Rossi and Alex Grieve said the initiative was born out of a realization that “experience is extremely undervalued.”

“There are a lot of women coming into this industry, but very few at the top and there is a dearth of experienced women in their 30s and 40s,” said Grieve.

“We spoke to a lot of women about this, and sometimes when they do come back, the conditions are patronizing and the work not that exciting,” added Rossi. “Returning can be disappointing: for example they are given a non-challenging brief and kept away from the best clients. We want to make sure they have access to the best briefs.”

So far, around two dozen people have applied for the roles, with both internal and external candidates applying. Each new hire will be connected to an industry mentor to help with their transition back into work. Rossi said that these could include clients, or senior women from production companies, as well as creative agencies, and that each mentor would be handpicked for each new hire.

Grieve and Rossi said that while no direct pressure came from clients, they spoke to several senior female clients before launching the effort, in order to get their advice. The scheme has been approved by the wider BBDO network.

Several networks and holding companies now have plans to boost female leadership—for example, DDB’s “The Phyllis Project” and Omnicom’s “Omniwomen”—and other agencies, including CP&B in London, have offered “returnships” to women returning to the workplace. However, AMV believes its program is the first—at least in London—to offer permanent roles.

“We want to put a flag in the ground here,” said Rossi. “It’s not a transient gesture.”

13712: Creative Equals ≠ Equality.

Campaign published diverted diversity delirium from Creative Director and Creative Equals Founder Ali Hanan, who sought to explain, “Why we lose our female talent before they even start.” The most disturbing part of Hanan’s hype is the photo (depicted above) accompanying the perspective—which appears to be a stock image that hardly represents the true diversity of women in adland. It’s a safe bet that Hanan is primarily concerned about why we lose our White female talent before they even start. While she does acknowledge BAME females have it far worse than White females, she doesn’t bother noting that BAME males have it far worse than White females too. Hell, battling “maternal bias” trumps confronting regular bias every day. Creative Equals covers a very narrow and exclusive definition of equality—as shown by the photo below from a Creative Equals event.

Why we lose our female talent before they even start

By Ali Hanan

The current system with ‘creatives’ of ‘placements’ fails our young female talent. While young women will leave the UK’s advertising and design colleges in equal numbers, about 40% of them will never make it to their first rung of the career ladder. Yes, you read correctly, writes Ali Hanan, creative director and founder of Creative Equals.

Two-fifths of young female talent are lost between graduation and industry

At advertising colleges across the country, women attend equally or skew slightly more, but then the current placement process of landing a job isn’t working for our young female talent. The question is why? The IPA’s statistics show just 29.6% of creative departments are staffed by women — up from 25% last year. What this statistic doesn’t show is many of departments Creative Equals sees run at 10% and below.

Many creative departments across London have no female creatives at all

That means a young female placement talent who comes into an environment like this will not see someone who may look or sound like themselves. Just 12% of creative directors are women and as bias studies show, people mentor those who reflect “people like me”. Young women won’t get mentored from day one on the creative shop floor. They’ll look up the ladder where those important role models are few and far between. Dig into BAME female representation at a senior level and you’ll find these numbers are not just fewer, but gulfs apart.

Social mobility is also a huge barrier

With the odds stacked against young women as they come into the workplace, there is also the simple fact some can’t afford to take up their placements. Some lack social mobility, and faced with crippling student debts and staggering London rents, they won’t even start on the ladder. More research needs to happen, which is why Creative Equals is working with D&AD New Blood to further unpack what happens over the coming months.

What we can do to change this straight away is start funding young female talent

Last year, the managing director of Major Players, Helen Stokes, died tragically. In her memory, £7,000 was raised, £5,000 of which went to an internship bursary with D&AD New Blood and Creative Equals. There were 16 applicants for the fund, but only one to give, awarded to Rebecca Rhoysn Petts-Davies. Although she had won a Yellow Pencil and received a first-class degree, her personal circumstances meant she had no means to take up a placement.

Thanks to the fund, she now has a flying career at Wunderman, where she has won second place at the recent Cannes Young Lions UK competition and D&AD New Blood Award. She said: “I really couldn’t have done any of this without this bursary.”

We already have female teams telling us they won’t come into London without financial help

To raise funds, Creative Equals has launched a bursary fund on Chuffed.Org in partnership with D&AD, teaming up with the CANNT Festival, Facebook and Major Players. The campaign — designed and shot by Petts-Davies and her copy partner Maya Halilvoc — is an ode to their talents.

Creative Equals have already put a portion of the starter funds in. We’re a tiny non-profit start up. So now your turn, adland.

13711: Going Overboard Overspending.

The Financial Times reported that Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity will introduce restrictions designed to reduce bad boy behavior on yacht parties. Gee, could anything better underscore the advertising industry’s Whiteness and exclusivity than festivities on yachts? WPP Overlord Sir Martin Sorrell opined, “Along with the Effies, Cannes remains the most important celebration and recognition of what we do. But I don’t think the industry does itself any favours by overspending at the festival.” The industry doesn’t do itself any favours by overspending on acquisitions, lawsuits and holding company CEOs either.

The parties are over at Cannes ad festival

Organisers seek to curb bad behaviour as industry awakes to sober outlook

By David Bond, Media Correspondent

Organisers of this year’s Cannes Lions advertising festival are introducing new restrictions on super yachts entering the Cote d’Azur port as part of a wider crackdown on what they call “inappropriate” and “distasteful” behaviour during the week-long event.

In a move likely to be welcomed by some ad and media executives who have been calling for tighter controls on Cannes’ party culture, the event’s owners Ascential have struck a deal with the city’s authorities to “privatise” part of the harbour for the first time in the festival’s 64-year history.

Duncan Painter, chief executive of Ascential, told the Financial Times that last year there was “an excess of celebration” on boats in the harbour, which was “not in line with the festival’s brand”.

Mr Painter pointed to two super yachts hired by the Daily Mail group as an example of the “distasteful” behaviour he said his customers had asked him to rein in.

“It was like Club 18-30 down there,” said Mr Painter, referring to the Mail’s hired yachts. “They ran a 24/7 party. That is not what we wanted at our event. Cannes is about the work and the quality of creativity. We want the dignity and style that reflects the industry we are in.”

Those looking to rent a yacht and moor it at the Jetee Albert Edouard, next to the city’s Palais de Festivals, to entertain guests and clients will now be required to buy an official Lions festival pass for the boat as well as the number of people on board. The new rules will also require guests to buy a pass or register with the organisers to gain access to some of the city’s top hotels.

Passes for the festival, which starts later this month and will this year feature star speakers like the actress Dame Helen Mirren and Hollywood director Ron Howard, can cost as much as €5,215 per person.

The Daily Mail’s boat parties have been one of the big attractions at Cannes Lions in the past three years with the reality TV star Kim Kardashian and the singer Sting among a number of A-list celebrities used to help promote the group’s newspapers and its website Mail Online with advertisers.

But the company said it had decided to take a break this year.

“No doubt we will be sorely missed,” the Daily Mail said. “But we are extremely happy with the wisdom of our decision not to invest in the festival this year.”

In common with all newspaper publishers, DMGT, the Mail’s parent company, has been hit by a sharp decline in print advertising revenues.

Last week, the company announced that print advertising at the Mail titles had fallen 12 per cent in the six months to the end of March although online advertising had jumped by 19 per cent over the same period.

This year’s festival was always likely to be a more sober affair with the advertising industry under growing pressure as multi-nationals like Procter & Gamble slash their ad budgets and agencies try to come to terms with the growing power of technology groups like Google and Facebook.

Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP chief executive, hinted last year that the world’s biggest advertising group might rethink its approach to Cannes.

“Along with the Effies [industry awards], Cannes remains the most important celebration and recognition of what we do,” Sir Martin said. “But I don’t think the industry does itself any favours by overspending at the festival.”

Mr Painter said that the new measures had also been introduced to help ensure the safety of the 30,000-plus guests who regularly descended on Cannes for the Lions festival.

But he added that concerns over the state of the ad business were also a factor. “Cannes is to celebrate,” he said. “But when we see the level of excess we saw last year it’s just inappropriate with where the industry is right now.”

13710: Boys’ Club Bullshit.

Advertising Age declared, “Advertising Is Still a Boys’ Club”—via a painfully long report that the stereotypical adman would have little patience to peruse.

The piece opened with the following stories:

Suzanne and a colleague are hard at work on a new-business pitch for a toy targeted to little girls. The day before the big meeting, the duo’s male creative director points to Suzanne and says, “You’re going to the meeting because we need more women in the room.”

On the morning of an important pitch, one of two men in the client service department approaches Leah and asks her to take the coffee orders since no one on his team is in yet. She looks around and notices that she is the only female in the office. Begrudgingly, Leah begins to take orders until her female planning director intervenes. “Get back to the pitch,” the director says as she deputizes a man on the tech team to get the coffee.

Julia, a C-suite executive, is asked to take notes in meetings where she’s the only woman.

Then there’s Michelle, who is constantly left out of meetings and has her work handed over to younger, less qualified men on the creative team. And Gretchen, whose male former managing director sits inappropriately close to her during meetings, legs touching, and asks her to go to a client visit with him alone for the week. And Angela, an intern, whose male executive creative director slaps her butt at happy hour. And so on.

It’s not clear if these tales of woe are based on actual events. But if so, one thing is certain: While the women might have felt slighted, it’s highly likely that there were zero minorities present. That is, White women might face demeaning moments, but racial and ethnic minorities don’t even get a chance to be dissed—the truth is, people of color face far worse discrimination from White men and White women in the field.

Here’s another excerpt worth noting:

Karen Kaplan, CEO of Hill Holliday, defines it this way: Diversity is being invited to prom; inclusion is being asked to dance. It’s not hard to “game the system when you report diversity numbers,” she said, but really being inclusive is about allowing people to influence the strategic direction and leadership of the industry.

Nice. The CEO of a White advertising agency admits it’s easy to “game the system when you report diversity numbers.” Hey, it’s also a breeze to create faux inclusiveness via your website culture section—however, the leadership section tells the true story. White women like Kaplan prefer to focus on diverted diversity and whine about the gender pay gap versus advocate for progressive change.

Here’s a third excerpt to inspire annoyance:

Lori Senecal, global CEO of CP&B, who is retiring at the end of the year, said she believes the industry has to evolve the vocabulary around the perception of women in leadership. “For instance, it would be great for women with a strong point of view to be described as decisive versus difficult,” said Senecal.

Okay, but Senecal once admitted, “The glass ceiling is more of a thing of the past.” Guess she’s evolving her perspective on the alleged discrimination that White women face in White advertising agencies. It would be swell if she were more decisive in her viewpoints.

“Advertising Is Still a Boys’ Club” is not the true problem. “Advertising Is Still a Whites-Only Club” is the issue everyone strives to ignore.

13709: AmEx Charges Out Of Ogilvy.

Adweek reported American Express shifted its global brand business from Ogilvy to mcgarrybowen—apparently without a review, making the move a major monument of Corporate Cultural Collusion. An American Express spokesperson stated, “mcgarrybowen will be working with us on developing a new global brand platform that will bring together all of our brand and product-related work under one umbrella. The new platform will capture the innovative work that is underway throughout our company and reflect the diversity of our business here in the U.S. and internationally.” Sorry, but diversity should not be mentioned when dumping one culturally clueless White advertising agency for another, especially when the new AOR has shown pride for being founded by nepotistic Old White Guys. Granted, the current mcgarrybowen leadership has diversified to feature slightly younger White men and White women, yet the agency website seems to have lost its diversity statement. Then again, maybe it’s fitting that a White advertising agency create a global concept for a company called American Express, which used to tout its exclusivity by declaring, “Membership Has Its Privileges.” In the advertising industry, membership has its White privileges.

American Express Moves Its Global Brand Account to Mcgarrybowen After More Than 50 Years With Ogilvy

Longtime agency will remain on roster

By Patrick Coffee

American Express has moved responsibilities for all global brand creative development, as well as U.S. execution of that work, from Ogilvy & Mather to Mcgarrybowen in an unexpected shift.

Moving forward, American Express confirmed that Ogilvy “will be responsible for international execution and they will also continue with some of their current U.S. work,” but declined to elaborate on which portions of the business will stay with the WPP network.

The client did not issue an RFP.

“Mcgarrybowen will be working with us on developing a new global brand platform that will bring together all of our brand and product-related work under one umbrella,” said an AmEx spokesperson. “The new platform will capture the innovative work that is underway throughout our company and reflect the diversity of our business here in the U.S. and internationally.”

Ogilvy has worked with American Express in some capacity since 1962. During that stretch, the agency has been responsible for such memorable lines as “Don’t leave home without it” and “Membership has its privileges,” and the partnership endured as other agencies came and went.

Spokespeople for both agencies deferred to the client for comment.

American Express, which is currently America’s fourth largest credit card company by membership, has long distinguished itself as an exclusive product in a series of ads aimed at upper income consumers. Its most recent global brand campaign, starring comedian Tina Fey, began running in 2014.

The reasons behind the decision to move that work to Mcgarrybowen are unclear at this time, but it’s worth noting that co-founder and chairman Gordon Bowen is a former Ogilvy executive who led the aforementioned “Membership has its privileges” campaign.

More than a year ago, American Express announced that chief marketing officer John Hayes would be leaving the company after more than 20 years as part of a larger streamlining effort. At the same time, the company created a global marketing operations unit led by vp Mike McCormack and promoted longtime executive Elizabeth Rutledge to the role of evp, global advertising and media.

Kantar Media lists American Express’s 2016 domestic paid media budget at approximately $502 million, a significant increase over the $408 million the company spent on marketing in 2015.

13708: W+K London, B.S. Italian.

Wieden + Kennedy in London created a Babbel commercial that might inspire criticism from Sons of Italy or The National Italian American Foundation. How do you say, “Now that’s fucked up!” in Italian?

13707: Shit In, Shit Out.

Advertising Age spotlighted Fortnight, a new White advertising agency positioning itself as the speediest shop in the business—they’re the Jimmy John’s of ad firms. The agency’s leadership includes refugees from Victors & Spoils, which hints at the probably shitty quality of work excreted from the enterprise. Based on the group photo depicted above, Fortnight is quick to ignore diversity too.

This New Agency Bangs Out the Creative Process in Two Weeks

By Lindsay Stein

When Andy Nathan came up with the idea for Fortnight Collective, which counts Nestlé Purina and Yasso Frozen Greek Yogurt among its founding clients, he said he was looking to answer the question: “How can we get to ideas and critical thinking faster?” Nathan, who grew up in advertising at the likes of CP&B, TBWA, BBH, Ogilvy and Victors & Spoils, said most successful campaign and client ideas he’s had throughout his career came during a time crunch. “Innovation happens on the fringes when no one else is looking,” he said. Not having time to overthink things can help.

So Fortnight Collective developed a two-week process, including a full-day “hack,” to go from brainstorming to strategic development to execution. (The amount of time was based on his instincts rather than science, Nathan said.)

Mandy Eckford, director of client services at Fortnight, who previously worked with Nathan at Victors & Spoils, said the process starts with a kick off-immersion with the client to figure out its specific challenge, followed by digging into data and defining key deliverables. Day four is usually about strategic development and picking key audiences and focus points. The last day of the first week is an “advertising hack,” where the agency and client work together to solve the challenge. Week two is focused on identifying the strongest ideas, crafting them and executing the plan.

The agency has six full-time staffers in its Boulder, Colo., office, but it has about 40 people in its collective, which Eckford said includes senior-level talent that previously worked at shops like Anomaly, R/GA and CP&B who are hand-picked for specific projects.

Nathan said because so many people today are working for themselves, Fortnight wanted to develop a “creative market” for them that isn’t too formal.

Drew Harrington, co-founder and co-CEO of Yasso Frozen Greek Yogurt, brought on Fortnight to help kick off its summer campaign after hearing about the Nathan’s quick, nimble and efficient concept from the brand’s strategic marketing agency, Good Dog. Harrington said Fortnight offered “big agency experience in a short period of time.”

Yasso’s end-of-week advertising hack lasted about 12 hours, he said, and after one idea was settled on, the agency spent the next week honing in on the campaign idea. Fortnight is also handling out-of-home, radio and digital media buying for Yasso’s upcoming campaign, and the brand plans on adding an experiential element and doing some third party activations with the likes of Pandora.

Even though Fortnight’s work is finished on the campaign, which will start later this summer, Harrington said he has hired them for a few more projects.

“The reality is, if we do our job, clients will keep hiring us back,” said Nathan. “Being constantly on our toes and performing for our next meal keeps us hungry and honest and excited to produce things.”

This doesn’t mean that Fortnight is against AOR relationships, said Nathan, but the project emphasis has been working so far.

Fortnight is hoping to create real breakthrough work for clients. Nathan said when he looks at the path of growing agencies, “like Droga5, there’s usually a seminal piece of work that changes the trajectory of that agency,” and he’s hoping Fortnight can do that while helping brands be better, faster.

13706: Biased Bullying…?

“Ad agency culture promotes ‘backstabbing, bitchiness and bullying’” is the title of a perspective—published by Campaign—from Quiet Storm Founder and Executive Creative Director Trevor Johnson. Interestingly enough, while Johnson is a minority who has actually advocated for diversity in adland, the editorial features a photograph (depicted above) of a White woman being attacked by White hands. It’s sadly apropos, given that the typical ad agency culture lacks, well, culture.

13705: Dos Equis Hires Gringo5.

Advertising Age reported Dos Equis dumped Havas—the White advertising agency that created “The Most Interesting Man in the World”—and handed its business to Droga5, another White advertising agency. Over the years, Havas hired White men to play the iconic Latino character. So it should be interesting to see where Droga5 takes things, given its history of cultural cluelessness, pseudo progressiveness and faux inclusiveness. Stay Exclusive, Mis Gringos.

Dos Equis Drops Agency That Created Most Interesting Man

By E.J. Schultz, Lindsay Stein.

The Most Interesting Man in the World is about to start working with a new ad agency, assuming he survives an account change on Dos Equis. Heineken USA has moved the brand from Havas Worldwide to Droga5, the marketer has confirmed to Ad Age.

Havas Worldwide created the iconic ad character in 2006 and had been handling the account since then, surviving multiple marketing executive changes at the brand. But brand-owner Heineken USA has decided to make a change less than a year after relaunching the iconic campaign with a new actor in the leading role.

“Dos Equis and Heineken USA have great appreciation for Havas’ long-standing partnership and creative collaboration, which produced the iconic advertising campaign, ‘The Most Interesting Man in the World,’” Heineken USA said in a statement. “Their work will continue through 2017. Droga5 will be the new creative agency of record for Dos Equis, and their first campaign for the brand will launch in 2018. Droga5 is well-known for breakthrough advertising and we are excited to collaborate with them on the evolution of the campaign, as well as new ways to engage our consumers.”

The move marks a return to Heineken USA by Droga5, which last summer parted ways with the marketer to join Anheuser-Busch InBev’s roster of agencies. The shop was hired to handle strategic planning and creative execution for AB InBev’s Best Damn brand of flavored malt beverages. The Dos Equis win could cause a conflict with AB InBev, but the status of the relationship is unclear. Droga5 declined comment and AB InBev spokespeople did not immediately respond to an email request for comment on Tuesday night.

Havas was not immediately available for comment.

The change comes less than a year after Dos Equis relaunched the campaign with French actor Augustin Legrand playing the lead role. He replaced Jonathan Goldsmith, the original Most Interesting Man in the World, as Dos Equis decided to go with a younger actor. The campaign was left largely intact without any major changes to the witty one-liners, like “He once cheated death, and death was perfectly OK with it.”

But Dos Equis still made tweaks to the ads. For instance, the new ads play out entirely in the present era. The old spots included footage of a younger version of the man, suggesting a bygone era. The classic tagline, “Stay Thirsty, My Friends,” was changed to “Stay Thirsty, Mis Amigos,” a play for Hispanic and bi-cultural drinkers.

Dos Equis has grown sales by 6% year-to-date, according to IRI figures cited this week by Beer Business Daily, which noted that the brand’s sales accelerated by 7% in the four week period ending May 14. But Dos Equis is still chasing hot-sellers Corona and Modelo Especial in the Mexican import segment. Corona and Modelo Especial grew by 9.1% and 21.7% respectively in the 12-week-period ending May 20, according to Nielsen data cited in a recent Wells Fargo beverage report.

Havas created the campaign when the shop was known as Euro RSCG. Karl Lieberman, then a copywriter/art director for the agency, recalled to Ad Age last year that he and his creative partner Brandon Henderson reluctantly came up with the idea about a half hour before a meeting with the executive creative director. “We were just a couple of idiots trying to make each other laugh and cobble something together for a meeting on an account we figured we’d never sell something on anyway,” said Lieberman, now the executive creative director at Wieden & Kennedy New York, where he works on Bud Light.

13704: Perception & Reality At JWT.

Adweek interviewed JWT New York CEO Lynn Power, getting her take on “gender and diversity at JWT after the big lawsuit.” After the big lawsuit? Um, it hasn’t even gone to trial yet. Regarding exclusivity and discrimination at JWT, Power believes there are differing internal and external perceptions for the White advertising agency. “You can meet the people in the leadership and the people you’re going to work with,” said Power, “and you can decide if this is a culture you want to be part of.” Okay, but taking a peek at the JWT New York Executive Leadership seems to show the external perception is pretty accurate. Plus, it should be noted that Power came to JWT via Arnold New York, where “Our Fearless Leaders” are equally lacking equality. Sorry, but external perception is strongly supported by internal reality.

Q&A: CEO Lynn Power on Gender and Diversity at JWT After the Big Lawsuit

And how the internal and external perceptions of the agency differ

By Kristina Monllos

Adweek: What are you doing to encourage diversity and gender equality at JWT’s New York office?

Lynn Power: We talk a lot about diversity as a business driver—also because our world today, sadly, is more divided than ever and it’s important to recognize that it’s not just about what we think about in New York or the coasts. There’s lots of different opinions out there and there’s lots of different people out there and we need to reflect those opinions and people and consumers and humans in the work that we do. So the best way to do that is to embrace diversity of thinking, diversity of different types of people across all walks of life, and finding ways to bring people in that may not have thought of advertising as a place that they were logically drawn to or their first thing that they wanted to do.

With the Erin Johnson case [in which Johnson, JWT’s chief communications officer, sued the agency for discrimination and accused its former CEO Gustavo Martinez of making “sexist and racist comments”], the perception of JWT has shifted. What would you say it is now?

Well, I think there’s an internal perception and an external perception, and I’d say internally, we’re rocking. I think people are feeling really good about the direction we’re going and the momentum we have and I think the culture has changed quite a bit. And certainly since I’ve been there [three years ago], it’s changed a lot. Sometimes the external perception doesn’t quite catch up, hasn’t caught up with the internal perception. … If you think about just in the past few months, we launched some work with Black Lives Matter, which, to me, is action. Really living our beliefs, not just talking about it. We’re doing some work for HeForShe and we are [working for Save the Children].

How do you change the external perception of the agency?

It really comes down to the people and the agency. We hire lots of people. We’ve had a really good new business track record and I always say to people, “You know what? Make up your own mind.” You can come in. You can meet the people in the leadership and the people you’re going to work with, and you can decide if this is a culture you want to be part of. So I’m not trying to convince people to think of us a certain way or tell people what’s right or wrong.

As a woman in a powerful position at an agency that has just spent a year dealing with whether or not it was good to women, do you feel as though the onus to make change is more on you than on your male colleagues?

Look, I have my own experience having worked at the agency and my experience was a good experience. I guess I feel like it’s an opportunity. I’ll think of it that way. Clearly when something like that happens—we can’t talk about that case—but it creates a lot of conversation. I look at it as, “If I can drive that conversation into a place where we can lean in even harder and do even more because we are an agency that’s now talking about it, that’s a good thing.” I’m in a position as a woman to be able to kind of have an unapologetic stance on pro-equality, pro-women, pro-diversity, supporting women’s leadership, helping women figure out their own voice. And not just women, but diversity across the board. So I feel good about that, because I think I am in a position where I can hopefully have a bit of an impact in a good way.

Would JWT want to try and rebrand?

I always feel like our work does speak for [the agency], and maybe it’s my perspective on leadership as I’m much more of a doer. There are other leaders who are much more about, you know, “Rah, rah, rah,” and kind of out there in a more visible way. But I do hope that enough action and enough momentum will create a little bit of energy around our brand. … I would say a big priority for us is the quality of our work and really not just having a couple of things that are great that pop, but really having it be a full body of work that we think is outstanding.

What do you think is overrated right now in the space? Is it influencers? Is it experiential? Is it VR?

This may be a little controversial, but I think the idea of having to be “always on” is overrated. For a while, I feel like our clients were being told constantly that you need to have a high volume of stuff every day. But do you really need a post for National Donut Day? I don’t know. Is it really that relevant? … I think there’s a resetting of that notion of content and how much you actually need to do to be effective and instead trying to go deeper and [create] more meaningful things.

Specs

Current gig

CEO, JWT New York

Previous gig

President, Arnold New York

Twitter: @LynnPowered

13703: Popeyes Is Sickly Sweet.

Annie the Chicken Queen hawks her Sweet & Crunchy Tenders with a Black man acting like a Stereotypical & Stupid fool.

13702: Shining Spotlight On Sun.

To celebrate African American Music Appreciation Month, check out the product placement with Sun and Bic.

13701: Googling Josephine Baker.

Google celebrates the late Josephine Baker on her birthday. Wonder how the artist and activist would respond to a tribute from an organization whose diversity is not much evolved from what Baker experienced in her lifetime.

13700: C’MON WHITE MAN! Episode 51.

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

Adweek published a patronizing perspective from Kinetic Worldwide North America CEO David Krupp, who sought to explain “Why the Ad Industry Needs to Make Gender Equality a Priority”—while completely ignoring the need to make regular equality a priority.

Krupp opened by praising his mother as “the personification of Mad Men’s Peggy Olson, having worked at FCB in the 1960s, so I had a shining example of a strong woman working hard in a challenging corporate environment.” In other words, Krupp acknowledges that White women have been making progress since the 1960s, yet he seems oblivious to racial and ethnic minorities being denied opportunities since even before that historic decade. Oh, and it’s also worth noting that Krupp likely took advantage of nepotism to enter the field himself.

Next, Krupp pointed out past governmental support for women, including The Equal Credit Act and The Family Medical Leave Act. Wonder if the moron realizes White women are the single group that has most benefited from Affirmative Action.

Krupp closed by crying, “We still have work to do and we need to keep women’s rights top of mind and not on the back burner. I fear apathy will set in and rather than continuing to strive for the shattering of the glass ceiling, we will focus our attentions elsewhere. But I refuse to give up. Naysayers may push hard. But we must push harder. Shout louder. Act faster. We have all fought long and hard to create an inclusive, fair and diverse world for us to live in. Our work is far from over, however. In some ways, it has just begun.” Gee, it sounds swell until taking a peek at Kinetic Worldwide’s people and seeing that Krupp is full of krapp.

C’MON WHITE MAN!

Why the Ad Industry Needs to Make Gender Equality a Priority

In order to progress, we need to empower women

By David Krupp

My mother was the personification of Mad Men’s Peggy Olson, having worked at FCB in the 1960s, so I had a shining example of a strong woman working hard in a challenging corporate environment. Back then, deep cultural changes were setting in, women were entering the workforce in droves and yet gender disparities were prevalent. Today, headlines reflect those same issues and it raises the question: Have we made any progress?

It doesn’t seem like we’ve come all that far, considering the signs that were held at the recent Women’s March on Washington. Some of my favorites:

I Will Not Go Quietly Back To The 1950s

Can’t Believe We Still Have to Protest Women’s Rights

You Think I Am Mad, You Should See My Mom

My Arms Are Tired From Holding This Sign Since the 60s

Historically, the government has had heavy involvement in progressing equality for women. Think about The Equal Credit Act, The Family Medical Leave Act, and so many others. What would have happened without legislative support? What will the government do now and in the near future to help? If the answer is “not much,” what do our citizens plan on doing, independently or as businesses?

Gandhi once said: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” I think we can all agree that creating equality is the right thing to do and we should take steps to make our voices heard, whether it’s carrying a sign, writing your local government or starting a petition. But, what if it were also a smart business decision?

It’s interesting to note that women control an estimated 85 percent of purchasing choices, yet over 91 percent of them feel that marketers don’t understand them. It’s imperative for this reason to diversify to properly comprehend and communicate to consumers. And I believe the advertising industry is exemplifying this by demanding transformation. Clients are now insisting that equality is a priority for its day-to-day business partnerships. Companies like General Mills and HP are requiring diverse teams from their agencies as the minimum cost of entry to manage their accounts.

Furthermore, women-run businesses are thriving around the world. According to the EY Global Job Creation Survey 2016, a survey of 2,673 entrepreneurs globally, female entrepreneurs were found to be 19 percent more likely to be running billion-dollar companies than men, and due to their executive positions, women are leading in the job-creation stakes. As a result, those companies are anticipating an average growth rate of 10.9 percent in the next year.

Business revenue among women-owned firms have also increased by 35 percent since 2007, compared to 27 percent among all U.S. firms—thus at a rate that is 30 percent higher than the national average.

If we know that creating opportunities for women is the smart thing to do and the right thing to do, we need to explore what corporate America’s role should be.

• Do companies, which have spent the past two decades working toward gender equality, retreat or continue to put programs forward to move the cause along?

• Will existing laws change HR policy in America and around the world?

In order for us to progress, we need to commit to gender diversity and advancement of women in our workforce. Women who have risen in the ranks based on their hard work, leadership and skill are counting on us. The long-term future for many organizations is female not by mandate but by merit.

We must further strive to empower women to speak up, lean in and take control of their work life. It is imperative to our future that we support flexible work policies, offer generous maternity and paternity leave, develop training initiatives and take on causes that support families, children and the end of human trafficking.

We still have work to do and we need to keep women’s rights top of mind and not on the back burner. I fear apathy will set in and rather than continuing to strive for the shattering of the glass ceiling, we will focus our attentions elsewhere. But I refuse to give up. Naysayers may push hard. But we must push harder. Shout louder. Act faster. We have all fought long and hard to create an inclusive, fair and diverse world for us to live in. Our work is far from over, however. In some ways, it has just begun.

David Krupp is CEO, North America, for WPP’s Kinetic Worldwide.

13699: Breaking Cannes Color Barrier…?

Oh, look! Halle Berry is coming to Cannes Lions. Berry is still the only Black woman to win an Academy Award for Leading Actress. Will she also be the only Black woman featured at Cannes? Maybe she’ll gush, “And it’s for every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened. Thank you. I’m so honored.”

13698: Worldwide Exclusivity At Arc.

Adweek reported, “Leo Burnett Group’s Arc Worldwide Expands After Winning MillerCoors”—plus, the firm hired or promoted seven executives. The accompanying photo (depicted above) shows the leadership at Arc Worldwide is not exactly reflecting worldwide diversity.

13697: FCB—King Of Chaos.

The ad depicted above for a Workfront seminar on “How FCB Conquered Agency Chaos” seems a little odd—especially running while Cannes is about to start—given the White advertising agency’s sad history with lion imagery.

13696: JWT Is 4 With R3.

Campaign reported JWT jumped 15 spots to secure the fourth position in the R3 new business chart for April. Could it be argued that losing culturally clueless douchebags from leadership positions leads to increased profits? See, embracing diversity and inclusion is a smart business decision. JWT Global Communications Officer Erin Johnson should be allowed to promote the news.

J. Walter Thompson leaps 15 spots in R3’s new business chart for April

McCann, DDB, Mindshare and MediaVest Spark also had strong months, according to global data from the search consultancy.

Within creative and digital agencies globally, the fastest mover this month was J. Walter Thompson, which moved up to the 4th spot from 19th last month thanks to a raft of wins across multiple markets and disciplines. McCann maintained top position on the back of a Coca-Cola project in the US and more Reckitt’s business in Europe. DDB’s global EA Sports win kept it in the top five. Looking at media agencies, Mindshare moved from 8th to 2nd with global wins including Jaguar China. Universal McCann picked up global business from Coach and Accenture.

Among creative and digital agencies in the US, there was no change in the top five rankings through April–with DDB moving up off the back of the Miller Lite win and J. Walter Thompson entering the list for the first time this year. For media agencies, MediaVest Spark jumped up to 2nd with its H&R Block win, and Mindshare was the biggest mover, securing the TJX business and other wins.