WPP Executive Resigns Over Remarks on Women [Or: Another media jerk's DEATH BY BLOG]

JULIE BOSMAN

[summer]

A well-known ... worldwide creative director at WPP Group resigned his position ...over remarks he made at an industry event about female creative executives. The comments, by Neil French, 61, drew attention to the absence of women at the highest levels of the creative side of advertising....

Mr. French told an audience... women "don't make it to the top because they don't deserve to"...

His comments infuriated... Nancy Vonk... of Ogilvy Toronto, [wrote] a column for a Web site denouncing his comments.

...Ms. Vonk said[:}..."It's undeniable that women aren't getting far enough in the creative part of agencies,..."
.. When Mr. French was asked ...why there weren't more high-ranking women in creative agency positions, he said it was because they were not good enough.

... In 1998, [French] was named to the position of worldwide creative director at WPP... the world's second-largest ad agency ...

...Mr. French defended his remarks:... "[Women] don't work hard enough..."b>

Mr. French said he believed that the event was private...
...Though statistics are hard to come by, industry executives said the scarcity of women in top creative positions is generally recognized. Creative directors are responsible for devising advertising campaigns.

The One Club... will induct a woman into its Hall of Fame next week for the first time since 1974....

...such imbalances in agencies were typically starkest in the creative department.

"Senior female creatives are virtually nonexistent," she said. "It's an incontrovertible fact,..." ...Mr. French's comments [are] "Neanderthal-like," [and]...an industrywide attitude."...

"There's still rampant sexism in our business," ....

Mr. French said he did not regret his remarks...Mr. French [was] widely pilloried on the Internet. "Death by blog is not really the way to go."

[summer]

I don't think anyone is living under the delusion that most ad execs are chosen in the same manner that you might, say, select the next Nobel laureate for economics.

Well, maybe you have a valid point, but consider the ramifications of what you are saying.
Let's say you are the only of a business and you are paying an ad agency. You should be getting the best advertising for your ad budget, created by the most talented people BUT -- the ad agency does not hire the most talented people.

Instead, the ad agency hires THE MALE PALS of the GUYS who already work there. So, the ideas and ad campaigns you get for your money SUCK.

But, you don't know that when you buy these ad campaigns. It's only AFTERWARDS, when you see your sales go DOWN, DOWN AND DOWN, that you realize: Maybe my ad agency stinks.

So, here's what happens next: you switch ad agencies.

But, guess what? That new ad agency also has an unwritten policy of white guys hiring their PALS who are ALSO white guys. These guys are all very friendly. They all like to PAL AROUND.
But the educated women who are talented and who can write are nowhere to be found. Too bad, because those women maybe could have written a better ad campaign for YOU. Those women maybe could have saved your business. Those women could have helped you COMPETE.

But, those women are not PALS with the MEN. See how it works? See how it hurts not only women, but also hurts you? Hurts business? Hurts America? That's what happens. For real.

[summer]

Let me ask you this: Why is that same question never asked about MEN? Men who are JERKS?

[summer]

I meant to type: Let's say you are the OWNER...

[theFIRMbss]

>The creative industry is an entrenched old-boy's network. Women are commonly excluded not because of the quality of their work, but because "that's the way it is."

On the other hand,
if a guy says GUYS are jerks,
all us guys do not

get hysterical
and demand he quit the biz.
The gals proved his point.

[summer]

No, it's not PC. It's plain old discrimination.

[ClearCase_guy]

One of the more cogent postings to this thread. I salute you!

I do not believe there is a conspiracy to keep women out of the top. If women were superior, they would rise to the top. Somewhere. Money matters in this country and in the advertising business. If you could make a killing by having women at the top, it would be so.

You have to have snakes in the head to see a broad conspiracy, lasting for generations, to maintain low-quality people at the top within a highly competitive industry.

[summer]

Re your post #46 - In the article, she mentioned the "creative PART" of advertising. You then said:

"Creative advertising?"

And, your comment indicates you have no idea what she was talking about. So, I will educate you and tell you what she was talking about.

There are different "sides" in an ad agency - the "Creative" side or part is ONE side or part of an ad agency. THAT's what SHE is talking about. THAT "part." That part includes people at the ad agency employed as: copywriters, art directors, and, working with them, others, such as the producers. These are the people who actually CREATE the advertising.

But, they're not the ONLY ones who work in an ad agency. You also have the ACCOUNT side. Those are the account managers, etc. Those are the people who deal more with the CLIENT and the CLIENT's BRAND MANAGER.

The whole article is complainting about the lack of women on the CREATIVE SIDE of ad agencies. THOSE jobs.

[summer]

Re post #46 -- see my post #67

[summer]

Here is a point you are missing big time: Men are men. Men DO think differently than women.

When a man has a choice between hiring his UNQUALIFIED PAL WHO IS A WHITE GUY and hiring a WOMAN WHO CAN WRITE, many jerk men will choose the UNQUALIFIED WHITE GUY. Not all men. But some. That's WHY those men ARE JERKS. Neil French's publicly expressed attitudes indicate he is of the JERK mentality.

[ClearCase_guy]

I think the issue here is that you aren't rising to the top.

And I think I know why. I think it might be (just guessing) that you have an enormous attitude problem. I wouldn't hire you any position at all.

Sweetie.

[trisham]

Let's say you are the only of a business and you are paying an ad agency. You should be getting the best advertising for your ad budget, created by the most talented people BUT -- the ad agency does not hire the most talented people.

**************

Fortunately, there is no competition between ad agencies, so they all survive. Women are legally denied the opportunity to own ad agencies, so they're just out of luck. Yes, I can see how it works. If only we didn't live in a country where men's businesses were guaranteed success, and laws were passed against women owning their own businesses! Oh, the horror!

[summer]

Consider this, from post #23 - the woman exec in advertising who blogged:

...Advertising remains in the dark ages as other fields reap the benefits of workforces now glittering with talented women. Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of the sea change that happened in the music industry when auditions for symphony orchestra members began to include hiding the musicians behind screens, thus eliminating the enormous bias against female artists. Female membership skyrocketed when conductors could no longer see who was playing the best. Now women comprise up to half the orchestras on merit....

That would be a huge SEA CHANGE in advertising: HIRE ON MERIT. Hasn't happened in most cases.

[summer]

Fortunately, there is no competition between ad agencies, so they all survive.

Maybe in Communist Cube, but not on Madison Ave, as it can be cut throat. And, no, not all American ad agencies "survive" -- some get taken over in a hostile takeover by foreigners because the WHITE AMERICAN MALES who run them run them into the ground and are IDIOTS.

[summer]

Fortunately, there is no competition between ad agencies, so they all survive.

Maybe in Communist Cuba, but not on Madison Ave, as it can be cut throat. And, no, not all American ad agencies "survive" -- some get taken over in a hostile takeover by foreigners because the WHITE AMERICAN MALES who run them run them into the ground and are IDIOTS.

[summer]

Re your post #70 - I feel sorry for you. But, see my post #72, which I posted to all, but I meant, mostly, for you.

[F-117A]

Thanks!

[trisham]

Maybe in Communist Cuba, but not on Madison Ave, as it can be cut throat. And, no, not all American ad agencies "survive" -- some get taken over in a hostile takeover by foreigners because the WHITE AMERICAN MALES who run them run them into the ground and are IDIOTS.

*************

No kidding. There's competition on Madison Avenue? Who would have guessed.

Some of my best friends are white American males, I'm happy to say. I'm sure you didn't mean anything racist by that statement, did you?

[summer]

Re your post #71 - You actually have a valid point in their at the end -- as I already said, more women should be encouraged to think like a CEO in this country. Not just the owner of a small business, but the owner of her own, large, big business.

Now, tell me this: Who's gonna teach girls to have that mindset? Teachers? Courtney Love druggie types? Mommies who never had a job?

Here's who can and does teach girls that mindset: Fathers.

Unfortunately, we lose our dads too soon in this country.

[summer]

their = there

[summer]

Re your posty #26 - BTW, despite the LOUSY Drem stats or record of allowing in women who want to work on Madison Ave or in Hollywood, liberals never fail to obscure their own crummy record to take a shot at GW.

While I was reading a movie review this morning about "North County" -- that new movie about the first sex discrimination lawsuit in this country, filed by a woman working in the PA mines -- I was shocked to see the movie was directed by: A WOMAN. And I thought to myself:

This is SO unusual, to see a WOMAN directing a Hollywood movie...there must be an insult against the Bush administration coming at the end of this review.

And, guess what? I was right. In the last paragraph of the review, the writer took a hit at GW:

"The filmmakers' inability to wrest a happy ending out of this story, much less a hint of real triumph, also may be partly explained by recent events. Last year, the advocacy group National Women's Law Center issued a report that accused the Bush administration of rolling back gains for women in all walks of life, noting the diminished number of sex-discrimination cases handled by the Justice Department. It's hard to imagine what the women who fought Eveleth Mines would make of these developments, though it is a good guess that they would be pleased to see their struggle onscreen and back in the public eye. After all, as is clear from the plaintiff who had her ashes scattered over the mines, these women knew when it was time to fight."

So, you see - the Dems are quite clever. They have the WORST RECORD OF EMPLOYIONG WOMEN IN HOLLYWOOD AND ON MADISON AVE, but they find just ONE MOVIE directed by a WOMAN and -- POW! a DIG at GW is slipped right on in there. Now -- as for every OTHER movie released this year, NOT directed by a woman, well, no mention will be made of GW's alleged record in those reviews...