Saatchi EC On Leave After Gender Gaffe
Kevin Roberts' controversial comments on gender lead to immediate leave of absence.
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In an online interview with Business Insider, Kevin Roberts, the Saatchi & Saatchi executive chairman, denied that the lack of women in leading roles in the advertising industy was a problem.
Despite the fact that all of the six major ad agency holding company CEOs are men and only 11.5 per cent of creative directors in advertising are women, Roberts claimed that the debate on gender bias in the industry is "all over".
"It is for the gravity of these statements that Kevin Roberts has been asked to take a leave of absence from Publicis Groupe effective immediately," Publicis chairman and CEO Maurice Levy said in statement released on Saturday afternoon. "It will ultimately be the Publicis Groupe Supervisory Board's duty to further evaluate his standing regarding gender diversity."
When asked in the Business Insider interview to comment on the views of advertising consultant Cindy Gallop (below), a vociferous equality campaigner who has long slammed the ad industry's attitude to women, Roberts said that, “I think she’s got problems that are of her own making. I think she’s making up a lot of the stuff to create a profile, and to take applause, and to get on a soap[box].”
Ouch.
With admirable restriant, Gallop reacted with: “The best response to that is to throw it open to the industry, and ask the women and men of the ad industry, all around the world, to tweet at @krconnect to let him know whether they think I’m ‘making it all up’.”
Apart from a chorus of disapproval from the industry the Twittersphere has thrown up some interesting responses to the debate, countering Roberts' claims that it is "all over".
Roberts did go on to suggest that women might prefer to stay in more creative roles rather than scale the ladder and take roles in management, saying, “So we are trying to impose our antiquated shit on them, and they are going: ‘Actually guys, you’re missing the point, you don’t understand: I’m way happier than you'.
"Their ambition is not a vertical ambition, it’s this intrinsic, circular ambition to be happy. So they say: ‘We are not judging ourselves by those standards that you idiotic dinosaur-like men judge yourself by’. I don’t think [the lack of women in leadership roles] is a problem. I’m just not worried about it because they are very happy, they’re very successful, and doing great work. I can’t talk about sexual discrimination because we’ve [Saatchi] never had that problem, thank goodness.”
Across its whole staff, Publicis Groupe has around a 50/50 gender split, while roughly 65 per cent of Saatchi’s staff are female, with around 32 per cent of those roles being senior positions, according to IPA statistics.
In another statement released on Saturday, Robert Senior (below), worldwide CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, said the following: “Kevin has given what are his personal views on the subject of gender diversity. However, those views are not mine, and nor are they the position of the agency. Saatchi & Saatchi is, and has always been, a meritocracy. We live and die by our people, our talent, and it makes no difference to us whether that talent is male or female.”
At time of writing, it has not been revealed if Roberts has agreed to take the leave of absence, but he may have no choice in the matter.
For more about Cindy Gallop's campaigning, plus an indepth analysis of the parlous state of 'her indoors' in the industry see here.
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