JWT Refutes Claims It Fired Its Creatives Because They Were “White, Straight Males”
The WPP-owned JWT London has denied reports that it made a number of senior creatives redundant because they were “white, male, straight, British”.
As reported on B&T yesterday, the undisclosed number of men were shown the door in May just days after the agency’s openly gay creative director, Jo Wallace, told a conference she wanted to “obliterate” the agency’s reputation as a “Knightsbridge boys’ club”, an apparent reference to London’s privileged elite.
Concerned by Wallace’s comments, the men took the issue up with JWT’s HR department only to be made redundant days later. The group has now sought legal action on the grounds of discrimination based on gender, race, nationality and sexuality.
Commenting on the case, a JWT spokesperson said: “Whilst it’s not appropriate for us to comment on individuals in an ongoing process, any redundancies at J Walter Thompson London are handled fairly, lawfully and without any form of discrimination.”
According to UK law, any firm that makes more than 20 redundancies is required by law to follow “collective consultation” rules.
The British media site Campaign, that initially broke the story, has quoted a JWT employee who said the agency had been laying off creative staff for the past 18 months and, as the creative teams were invariably white and male, it should come as no surprise that it was white men getting the bullet.
Other reports have suggested that there is a suspicion that agencies have been using things like the #MeTo movement and The 3% Conference as a smokescreen to get rid of expensive, senior managers who are often white males.
Adding to JWT’s woes, in May a report found it to have one of the worst gender pay discrepancies of any UK agency which led to its executive creative director Lucas Peon to declare: “In the World Cup of sucking at pay gap numbers, we made the final.”
Thus far newly appointed WPP CEO Mark Read has not commented on the circumstances surrounding the agency and the dismissed mens’ claims. Read has also said he will not micro-manage WPP’s agencies as his predecessor, Martin Sorrell, had done.
However, given the negative press surrounding the case, the interest outside the advertising industry in it and the possibility WPP will have to wage an expensive legal case and possibly payouts, Read would probably want this fire doused as quickly as possible.
Latest News
Sydney Comedy Festival: Taking The City & Social Media By Storm
Sydney Comedy Festival 2024 is live and ready to rumble, showing the best of international and homegrown talent at a host of venues around town. As usual, it’s hot on the heels of its big sister, the giant that is the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, picking up some acts as they continue on their own […]
Global Marketers Descend For AANA’s RESET For Growth
The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has announced the final epic lineup of local and global marketing powerhouses for RESET for Growth 2024. Lead image: Josh Faulks, chief executive officer, AANA Back in 2000, a woman with no business experience opened her first juice bar in Adelaide. The idea was brilliantly simple: make healthy […]
Is Meta’s New AI Chatbot Too Left-Wing?
Meta's chatbot accused of being left-wing after being caught wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt & listening to Billy Bragg.
TV Ratings (23/04/2024): Why Did No One Tell Angela That Farmer Wants A Wife Is Set On A Farm?
As wonderful as this headline is, let's face it, we all know an 'Angela', don't we?
PubMatic Unveils New AI Partnership To Turn Social Posts Into Ads For Any Digital Channel
Here's some nifty tech for turning social posts into ads. Assuming said posts aren't one-star character assassinations.
Intuit Mailchimp Makes A Splash With Its First Australian Brand Campaign
Ever laugh along at a gag you didn't get so as not to appear dumb? Get ready for more feigning with this new work.
GumGum’s Rob Hall: Advertisers Can No Longer “Rely On Binary Descriptions” Of Consumers
If anyone's got their finger on adtech's pulse, it's Rob Hall. He also avoids using the good paper in the office printer
Mastercard Nabs Florencia Aimo From Marriott International
Marriott International's Florencia Aimo jumps from the hotel business to the exploitative credit card one.
Bastion Agency Appoints Cheuk Chiang As New ANZ CEO
Cheuk Chiang takes the reins over at Bastion Agency. But not the rains down in Africa.
Spotlight On Sponsors: Major Sponsorship Wins After A Disappointing Week In Sport
B&T continuing our deep dive into local sport sponsorships & that's despite not a single offer of a free ticket as yet.
Macca’s Marketing Director, Samantha McLeod On Big Mac Chant: “What Was Once Old Is Now Cool Again”
Macca's using the power of nostalgia in latest Big Mac campaign. Well, only for those who've ever eaten one sober.
World Premiere Of Midnight Oil: The Hardest Line To Open Sydney Film Festival 2024
Oil's biopic to open Sydney Film Festival. Here's hoping Molly Meldrum will take his pants down at the premiere.
Entries Are Now Open For The 2024 Brandies, IntelligenceBank’s Annual Brand Marketing Awards
The Brandies are, of course, a prestigious marketing gong and not the mystery tipple favoured by nannas everywhere.
The Fred Hollows Foundation Appoints Ardent For PR
Yes, we all like to have a joke at PR's expense. But sometimes it does important work, like this.
AI, eCommerce & Marketing Specialists Are In Increased Demand By Businesses, New Data From Fiverr Shows
Has your philosophy & anthropology degree left you with nothing but a huge HECS debt? Here's what you should've studied.
Perth’s First 3D Anamorphic Billboard Arrives Courtesy Of oOh!media
Do you love a buzzword? Now you can add anamorphic to the list as it relates to billboards, not a colleague's ears.
MasterChef Australia & Crown Resorts Launch Unique Dining Experience With ALUMNI
A pop-up restaurant staffed by MasterChef contestants! That's fine dining prices for first-year apprentice chef cuisine!
Amanda Laing Announces Resignation From Foxtel Group
Foxtel's chief commercial & content officer heads for the exits. Read nice things the bosses said about her right here.
The Lost Letters From Our Diggers: News Corp Unveils ANZAC Day Special
It's nice when brands respectfully acknowledge ANZAC Day.
Howatson+Company Acquires Akkomplice
Large indie acquires a slightly smaller indie. Much like a shark eating a tuna, just with less thrashing and blood.
Google Delays Third-Party Cookie Deprecation Again
In good news for the sale of picture library biscuit photos, Google continues to tease over the end of cookies.
Education A Low Priority For Aussies More Concerned With Cost Of Living Forethought Study Reveals
Study finds Aussies cutting back on education due to cost of living. Booze & Uber Eats sales remain largely unaffected.
“I’m Still The Same Person That I Was”: Rikki Stern Says “Fucc It” To Cancer Stereotypes
B&T always happy to promote the anti-cancer cause. Even brands that massively overdo it with the hot pink.
The Unapproved Climate Certification Allegedly Causing Mass Greenwashing
Are you left flummoxed in the canned tuna & free range eggs aisle? Just wait till this green certification gets up.
TV Ratings (22/04/2024): Fans Mock “Over The Top” Reaction To New MasterChef Judges
MasterChef returns for its 2024 season. B&T stands by putting peppercorns in Gravox & no one will be any the wiser.
Dentsu Restructure: Muddle, Harvey & Johnston Take Leadership Baton As Bass & Yurisich Exit
A large broom has swept through Dentsu's local ops this morning, taking with it some big names & the air con's cobwebs.
Industry Shares Trends Shaping The Industry This International Creators Day
B&T's asking adland creators to reveal their top trends. And it's not good news for your Jenny Kee cardigan collection.
Mable Extends HOYTS Sensory Screenings Partnership
Mable has extended its HOYTS sensory screening partnership. Vigorously defends its two-star Oppenheimer review.
Orphan Launches ‘They Need Our Help. We Need Yours’ For Children’s Cancer Institute
Anything to do with childhood cancers has B&T's 110% support. That said, we do ignore the red meat & alcohol warnings.
Smile Team Orthodontics & Keep Left Collaborate On Smile-Inducing Campaign
As parents would attest, given the cost of orthodontics you'd expect this campaign to be a lavish production indeed.
Opinion: How Video Calls Neglect Learning Diversity
Need an excuse to duck out of a video call this arvo? Show this to your boss.
DoubleVerify Achieves First-Of-Its-Kind Responsible AI Certification From TrustArc
DoubleVerify receives responsible AI certification. However, not its robotic vacuum that's been seen menacing the cat.
Smile For A Good Cause: The Social Media Campaign Giving Back To The Community
Are you known as the office Austin Powers? More for you teeth than shagability? Get snappy new fangs with this news.
Elon Musk Mocks Albo After ESafety Wins Court Injunction Against X
Albo's 2024 from hell continues - Rabbitohs in crisis, down in the polls and now feuding with world's richest man.
Real Estate Developer In Hot Water Over “Sexually Exploitative” OOH Campaign
Real estate agents again tops in the 'least trusted profession' polls, nudging used car salesmen & ad creatives.
Epsilon’s Shane Hanby: Post-Cookie Era Relies On “Teamwork” Between Brands, Marketers & Tech
This pro predicts more "teamwork" in a post-cookie era. Which spells bad news for the uncooperative or plain stubborn.
This trend of agencies getting rid of their senior people may well not be gender, race, nationality and sexuality but really about ageism. The only reason there are no women mentioned in this is that there just aren’t women over 50 in the industry (3%). Surely this makes it all the more important that these big agencies re-evaluate their billing processes to get out of the hour by hour profitability and move towards outcome or efficiencies as their measure for reward. I think the agency world is no longer able to function effectively and deliver a quality product to their brands by running the old way of doing things. If I was a brand I’d be questioning why the time sheet model is still appropriate when agencies are benefitting from poor process and loading up the projects with excessive headcount and then crying poor and getting rid of some of their best talent because of it. JWT Australia got rid of 5 really senior, really great creatives earlier this year too, and in fact was the tipping point for me to say ‘enough!’ We have to stop this dysfunctional way of working. No one made a big fuss about that because age isn’t considered a real issue in our industry yet and only because of ignorance.
As an industry we don’t even yet have the right language or acknowledgment about how badly the ageism issue is. Think about this – we say ‘Oh, it’s a fiscal thing. Agencies can’t afford senior people’. As professor @Sven Brodmerkel from Bond University said to me about his recent ageism study recently, imagine if we said ‘Oh, it’s a fiscal thing. Agencies can’t afford black people’ how wrong that would be. This is a problem that the industry doesn’t even know they have at this point and this article is exactly the same. I can pretty much guarantee that JWT’s argument will be that they can’t afford these people any more… Fix your billing problems and you’ll fix ageism through the industry.
Ask @Trinity P3 about agency billing models and one good thing is that the time sheet model is in decline and other models increasing. Not to soon. We may start to see better talent staying in agencies.
Having been client side not so long ago I bet you that many brands actually have no idea of the makeup of their agency teams. With an average age of 27 and being male it certainly isn’t aligned with most brand’s customers. Somethings up, right? This issue for JWT is the tip of the iceberg.