A party invite to a bash in Cannes is causing uproar after it allegedly said only “attractive females and models” were allowed to attend. Men had to contact the company for alternative arrangements and women who want to attend were asked to send in an untouched image of themselves for consideration.
The invite for The Wednesday Party – hosted by full-service digital agency Vayner Media and media agency Thrillest Media – was allegedly sent out to the guest list by an external events company iGetIn, according to US trade media publication AdWeek.
The email note about the party was shared through social media channels, with adland legend Cindy Gallop tweeting out the invite’s contents.
It’s 2016, @vaynermedia @thrillist. This is not how you party at @cannes_lions. #canneslions #changetheratio pic.twitter.com/jF50tdPe0p
— Cindy Gallop (@cindygallop) June 22, 2016
CEO of Thrillest Media, Ben Lerer, shared on Twitter the internal note he sent to staff about the instance. Apparently, to organise an event of this scale in a new country, the media companies had hired a heap of external vendors to help out.
One of them then hired other companies. “This company then went on to hire several other companies to help with various aspects of the event,” wrote Lerer.
“We learned this morning (on Twitter) that one of these companies went about their job in an awful, sexist and just generally unacceptable way.
“No one at Thrillest (or Vayner for that matter) knew anything about what this vendor was doing and we are clearly appalled by it.”
When Gallop’s tweet started making the rounds, Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO and founder of Vayner Media, tweeted a video back expressing his mortification, apologies and his intent on investigating the matter.
@cindygallop pic.twitter.com/jfjYeoBeRi
— Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) June 22, 2016
Vaynerchuk has since been tweeting videos in response to other queries about the issue.
Forbes and AdWeek are reporting the company that sent the email was events company iGetIn. At the time of writing the company’s page comes up with a 404 error, however Forbes said a cached version of the site shows a promotions company that has sent similar messages in the past.
Lead image: The opening scene of Entourage, sourced from Esquire
