Crisis Experts Say WPP May Have Been Too Hasty in Defending JWT's Accused CEO

Backing Martinez in discrimination case may prove precarious

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When JWT's global spokeswoman filed a discrimination case against her own agency this month, parent company WPP quickly issued a statement saying its internal investigation had found no evidence that the claims were true.

JWT global CEO Gustavo Martinez, accused by chief communications officer Erin Johnson of making frequent racist, sexist and anti-Semitic comments, denied the allegations and stayed on the job while Johnson was placed on paid leave.

This approach, crisis response experts say, puts JWT and WPP in a difficult PR position, especially as Johnson's lawyers begin to circulate what they describe as recorded evidence proving that Martinez made insulting comments about rape, African Americans and Jews.

"In retrospect, it was a mistake to appear to side with one party or the other," said Terence Clarke, a consultant who helped manage Johnson & Johnson's response to the Tylenol tampering crisis in 1982. 

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