Kevin Roberts regrets his words, but he’s not quite “sorry” because they were taken out of context after a long flight. And he’s doing just fine, so don’t worry.
On Sunday, the former Saatchi & Saatchi executive chairman and Publicis Groupe head coach gave his first interview since resigning from his position at the beginning of September (ahead of his planned retirement on May 1, 2017) in the wake of backlash surrounding a Business Insider interview in which he told Lara O’Reilly that “The fucking debate is all over” in regards to gender diversity.
Speaking “candidly” with reporter Janet McIntyre of New Zealand broadcaster TVNZ, Roberts addressed the specifics of the interview and the “tsunami-like” backlash, admitting that he showed “appalling judgement” but claiming his comments were “taken out of context” and that he was “fatigued” in the middle of his fourth consecutive interview following an overnight flight.
“It was not my finest three minutes,” Roberts told McIntyre.
He also explained that he left his position in an attempt to “protect” Saatchi & Saatchi and his family, even though the decision was a painful one. While he maintains that his words, specifically the line that “The fucking debate is all over” were “taken out of context,” he did accept the blame for his comments. “I miscommunicated, misspoke…whose fault is all that? Mine,” he said.
“What I meant was that we should stop debating it and stop talking about numbers and start doing something about it,” Roberts added.
When asked how important he thought it was that women in the advertising industry “achieve in high places,” he responded, “I think the most important thing for society is that we have leaders in the right jobs doing the right things in the right way, whether they are men or women.”
He went on to say he spoke at length in the interview about millenials’ changing viewpoints on what constitutes success, but that it went unreported. “I spent a lot of time talking to young people and talking to young executives and have never encountered this kind of furore before.”
Roberts also gives McIntryre a tour of his Auckland mansion and claims to have called the result of the U.S. election three months in advance, explaining, “I took the view that Trump was being written off and there were some very important elements that he had going for him. He had a dream that we could all communicate with: ‘Make America Great Again’; that really tapped into the emotions of the people of America.”
Everyone listen to this man and pay more money for his insights!
TVNZ ends the segment with a look at where Roberts is now: working extensively as a consultant and dividing his time between his four houses. Here’s the feature in its entirety.
Image:TVNZ