Jeez Louise, we’re still awaiting to hear from both parties on the matter, but it doesn’t sound good. As you may have read last week, StrawberryFrog staff has sued D.C.-based PR company APCO, the latter of which acquired the agency in early 2012. Well, things are getting ugly. We’ve received word from very reliable sources, and one has spun a holiday-themed yarn like this:
“Strawberry Frog Amsterdam, a massive PR corporation from DC called Apco Worldwide led by Margery & Evan Kraus, and their made-up entity called the “Dutch Advertising Consortium.” The latter was created to save reputations after Apco attempted to shut down the Amsterdam SF office in October…via email. (Talk about breaking up with someone over a post-it note!) The issue now is that “The Dutch Advertising Consortium” may file bankruptcy in the next few days to avoid paying 20 employees and contractors—a move that could leave many broke from unpaid invoices and salaries.
The best part, is that the amount owed to employees would not even make a small dent in their combined revenues of 200M! Be sure to raise a glass to the Ebeneezers at @apcoworldwide and @frogism and tell them what you think about this kind of behaviour in our industry. Let them know that just like the epic tales of Scrooge or the Grinch, @apcoworldwide and @frogism can still turn it around and #dotherightthing by paying employees and contractors what they are owed. We believe in Christmas miracles. “God bless us, everyone!” Thank you, The Tiny Tims.”
FYI, agency founder Scott Goodson emphasizes that the Amsterdam company is controlled by Apco and is not StrawberryFrog, nor is it connected to StrawberryFrog New York. We’ll update when we hear more.
Update: APCO has sent us this statement:
“Hi Kiran –
StrawberryFrog Amsterdam was a standalone investment for APCO Worldwide, and not part of the operations of either StrawberryFrog or APCO. As we informed the media in early November, APCO decided to end this investment since the clients that had been serviced there had either moved their marketing in-house or switched to other agencies.
We are appropriately following the process for shutting down a business in which we invested, as we informed StrawberryFrog Amsterdam’s staff in early November. We will continue to act in a responsible manner in accordance with Dutch law as the process continues.”