Wieden+Kennedy’s new Australian office has started ruffling feathers in the industry, though perhaps not for the reasons it would have hoped.
Yesterday, it emerged who would be staffing the small outpost to work on McDonald’s chicken and McCafe creative.
Chris Wilson and Roy Leibowitz joined as group creative directors with creative duo Jack Elliott and Lochie Newham set to serve as senior creatives.
Wilson and Leibowitz joined from Big City Business. The pair launched the independent creative studio last year.
They had previously served as creative directors at Clemenger BBDO Sydney and held senior creative roles at BMF, M&C Saatchi, Innocean and Marcel.
Elliot and Newham, meanwhile, return to Australia from Anomaly London, having spent nearly two years there as senior creatives. Prior to Anomaly, the pair worked at Wunderman Thompson.
The fact that all four were white men was not lost on some in the industry. Deanne Constantine, a global talent partner at Blue Bateau, posted on LinkedIn saying that it was “not good enough”.
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Jet Swain, meanwhile, posted that the hires were reflective of a “tone-deaf landscape”.
“Either women are not fans of, eat McDonald’s, buy for their families, and do not impact culture OR they were no good women creatives to service the account,” she added.
“Is this a misstep or a missed opportunity, Wieden + Kennedy?”
However, one senior adland exec told B&T on condition of anonymity that they were “surprised we’re still surprised” and that nothing of substance would change until clients began to care about the staffing of their agency partners. As it stood, they said there was no penalty for a lack of diversity and that change would only happen when it started to hurt.
They added that creative agencies—regardless of their intentions and efforts to the contrary—remain dominated by men in senior roles. This “boys at the top” situation perpetuates a boys club culture throughout agencies, though not necessarily Wieden+Kennedy or its nascent Sydney operation in particular.
Wieden+Kennedy, for its part, told Mumbrella in a statement that it prioritises “building and retaining a diverse workforce as part of our larger talent strategy, and appreciate any dialogue that moves the industry forward”.
It added that the agency was still “at the beginning” of its process and had been in the market for less than a month.
“The hires we’ve made so far are only a few of a larger team we’re building out to work on Macca’s in Sydney,” it added.
“In terms of our continued hiring practices, again we will always prioritise creating a diverse workplace as we grow. This has been a commitment since our founding, and it’s reflected very clearly within our global and office-level leadership, as well as across our employee network.”
Lack of female senior representation became a hot-button topic in adland last year. Campaign Brief’s The Work 2024 double-page spread featured 20 leading creatives, none of whom were women. Its BestAds ranking of top creatives, ECDs and CDs, featured just one.
A number of network and independent creative agencies were reported to have stopped engaging with Campaign Brief, including Publicis Groupe’s and Clemenger Group’s creative shops.
Campaign Brief said that it took the “concerns raised by the community seriously” and that “while the list reflects the current makeup of CCO leadership in creative departments, it is not an endorsement of the imbalance”.
Wieden+Kennedy has said its priority would be building a team to service McDonald’s, rather than pitching for more business. Its next hires, however, look set to be very closely scrutinised.
Check out B&T’s Women in Media Awards winners and Power List from 2024.
