Advertising is a crazy business. Accordingly, staffers can get up to some crazy things. One woman has relentlessly taken her brand of crazy straight to the doors of BBDO Atlanta. The 42-year old woman filed an Equal Employment Opportunity complaint that was dismissed for lack of evidence and for being, well, far-fetched. And still, the ex-employee soldiered on to self-file a lawsuit against the company just this month.
On her list of crazy town complaints are things like being shown faxes written by the Executive Board, which talked about finding darkies to caddy for them during their golf games. She was allegedly called “puke” to her face and told that at 42 years of age, she was too old to be in an “industry [that] is fit for a younger crowd mainly in there 20s.” And the list goes on and on.
It’s just silly to even contemplate, so thanks for sending this to us, but erm… no. There is just no way that BBDO, an enormous beast of an agency with a robust human resources department would let this kind of verbal abuse and 1920s language (on a fax no less) enter the workspace. I’m happy to say that I really do believe that in 2010 ad agencies would never stand for this, so there. Plus, the EEOC is not the FCC. Generally, they do their jobs pretty darn well.
The accuser did not respond to our calls for comment. Meanwhile, BBDO tells us that they are planning to defend their position vicariously vigorously. Shouldn’t be hard. We’ll keep you updated on this case as it moves through the courts, as we’re fascinated with the lawsuit’s audacity. For a more thorough look at the case, download the filings. We’ve blacked out the name of the accuser and the numerous number of the accused.
Editor’s note: *The link to the PDF is currently down as we need to delete a last name. It will be back up tomorrow. Thanks!
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