Letters

Where Are They?Regarding your 'National Agency Report' and your 'Regional Agency Report' (April 7), I have only one question: Where are the women? Looking at the contents page for your special report, I counted a total of24 men, and not a single woman. When you looked at the page layout, were you not struck by this omission as well? Are there not any leading advertising agencies with women in the forefront in the entire United States? I am quite skeptical that you did your homework if the answer is yes.I wanted to be sure I wasn't being unreasonably harsh before writing you, so I scoured the entire magazine to make sure I had not missed an agency with women profiled. Well, I did find some women, after all. They were featured in the What's New Portfolio section in their underwear. The two ads show women in sexy lingerie. The American ad has lines such as 'They crave passion' superimposed on the women's breasts. The Brazilian ad (which shows a close-up of a woman's breasts in a black bra next to the orange juice ostensibly being sold) reads, 'There are better things to squeeze than oranges.'Now, these ads are not alarming by themselves, but if Adweek did not see the irony in the juxtaposition of these two portions of its magazine, let me make it clear. Let's start seeing more fully clothed women who are making advertising happen with their brains, and less of the scantily clad women who are making advertising happen with their chests.P.S. Where are the minorities?Pat BealAssociate creative directorHunt Marketing Group, Seattle------------Deal With It!The question I have: Why are all you whining babies in your mid-years clinging to the idea there is still a place for you in the new agency business ('Older Casualties,' April 14)? If art directors and copywriters didn't learn any marketing skills during a long career, there's something really wrong. I have as much sympathy for complaining ex-agency geezers as I do for the aerospace guys who made half a widget for 25 years and can't do anything else!Does it seem improbable that you can't take your skills and move into areas where you're really needed? Trust me, if there is to be a movement for change in our deteriorating communities, it will come from savvy advertising people. You can take less money, volunteer your expensive skills and live to see great things happening around you. If you've weathered broken marriages, bad investments, drug and alcohol abuse, death and taxes and are still able to think and plan clearly, there is a community-service project that wants you.Why waste your valuable time asking questions that can only be answered by your own ability to adapt? Get a grip! If the biz hangs up on you, go somewhere else and make it better.Lois DrakeAdministratorRedondo Beach Visitors Bureau, Redondo Beach, Calif.For the RecordThe Barbara Lippert retrospective (Adweek, April 21) failed to credit the illustrator, Cyril Cabry.Adweek welcomes letters. Send them to: Letters to the Editor, Adweek, 1515 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10036. Or fax them to: (212) 536-1416. Letters may be edited.Copyright ASM Communications, Inc. (1997) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED National

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