So, were you aware that former Saatchi & Saatchi CEO/current chairman Kevin Roberts has been asked to take a leave of absence after telling Business Insider’s Lara O’Reilly that “the fucking debate [over gender equality in advertising] is all over”?
Of course you were. But have you been able to absorb every published opinion regarding his current situation? Probably not!
That’s why we’re here. The takes, they are hot.
First we have the obvious: Ad Contrarian Bob Hoffman—who has been engaged in a spat of sorts with Roberts for some time—went in yet again on his “pompous horseshit,” stating that he never heard anyone at an agency resist a management-level promotion by saying that he/she would rather focus on the business. “Not one fucking time,” he wrote. “Never.”
Others weren’t quite so harsh in their heaping on. Mark Ritson, a professor of marketing who also writes for Marketing Week, used his op-ed to state that Roberts is simply oblivious to the problem he denied, acknowledging that the writer’s own status as a middle-aged man sometimes produces blind spots: “I would make the point that even well-meaning senior white males often can’t see the discriminatory trees for the egalitarian marketing forest they think they inhabit.”
So what about the reality of women working in the industry?
In perhaps the best possible response to Roberts, Saatchi & Saatchi global chief creative officer Kate Stanners directly contradicted her (former?) boss, telling the BBC that, while parenthood can indeed alter a given professional’s career trajectory, Roberts’ truism about women in agency roles lacking “vertical ambition” is a bunch of bullshit and that “[women] don’t bail out, and do want the top jobs.” This clip is worth a watch.
The Guardian then opined, “For a business that is all about communication, advertising is finding it hard to get its own message right.” This takedown was particularly brutal in that reserved, British sort of way: “It may be less remarkable that [Roberts] has been sent on leave than that he has lasted at the top, with particular responsibilities for leadership coaching, for so long.”
Of course, Sir Martin Sorrell had to weigh in. His statement that “the Publicis Groupe team coach was only echoing the words of his boss,” implying that Maurice Levy himself dismisses the gender divide, was the latest “I know you are, but what am I?” statement in the endless playground fight between these two prominent senior citizens.
Douglas Quenqua of Campaign took a different tack, focusing on Cindy Gallop and noting that her critics’ most common point—that she’s really just promoting herself—is one that women in positions of power have been hearing for a long, long time. Rachel Sklar said, “I find it really amazing that anyone would focus on, ‘Yeah but isn’t Cindy really getting something out of this? She should!” Airbnb CMO Jonathan Mildenhall also called her a “provocateur,” adding, “Is she making a difference? You bet. Does she benefit directly? Of course.”
Well, yeah. But did anyone go so far as to DEFEND Roberts? Glad you asked!
We have never really heard of City A.M. magazine, but staff writer Elena Shalneva argued on Monday that Roberts simply, boldly “dared to be honest” in his BI interview. She wrote that many of her female (and male?) colleagues had chosen to leave their high-level jobs after “perhaps realizing that going to the office for 35 years is not the best way to spend your life.” If only we all had that luxury. She then argued that “Publicis should reinstate him and let him continue the good work” after his leave.
Finally, Grace Dent wrote in center-left U.K. pub The Independent that women are to blame for “spread[ing] the frightening notion” that parenthood is essential to happiness and that no career will ever compare. She wrote: “… as women fall like dominoes after their mid-twenties, quitting the race to the top in droves, regurgitating this same self-placating idea that ‘smiles on little faces’ make up for power, prestige and big bucks, we want Kevin Roberts fired for cheerfully agreeing with us.”
Her statement on women working in corporate leadership positions: “It requires going to work and everyone disliking you, but then fretting all night that their livelihoods and children’s potential empty bellies depend on you.” If women want to succeed on the same level as men, she argued, they will have to accept that “Your own child or ageing mother will be way down on your list of priorities.”
Score one for being contrary, we suppose.
[Image via Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand]