I think we’re not talking enough about former AMV BBDO Creative Partner Polina Zabrodskaya calling out her agency and Mars, a global client, for greenwashing on global brief that undergo through her—and facing discrimination as a result. It’s rare to see this level of agency and corporate hypocrisy exposed by such a senior figure. After all, principles mean nothing if you're not willing to fight for them and risk everything.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/polinazabrodskaya_dear-all-thank-you-for-your-messages-of-activity-7308085687906435073-A5t5?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAd_-I0BVeRXmW72W8nf114FM4I28ZgYGGY
Kudos to her honesty, wish more senior figures took a page from her book
Whoever worked with her knows that this is just a way to get exposure. She knows this is an hot take and she did it to get the front page again after years of almost nothing
I know her and i think she’s one of the least performative people I’ve met in this business. Agree with cco2.
The entire advertising industry is based on the premise that our job is to present things in the best possible light.
We earn our living ignoring negative aspects of brands. We hide the truth. We mislead through omission. We exaggerate. We distract. We do everything except tell the unvarnished truth of things.
Mars didn’t want their agency to make work that exposed their environmental practices. Mars wanted their agency to make work that lied to the public.
She didn’t want to do that. Totally her call.
But is this discrimination? Or simply the inevitable result of an employee not wanting to do the job the client wants them to do?
I wouldn’t expect to keep my job if I kept saying no to what the clients are explicitly asking for.
Discrimination or not — this will be decided at trial, as she filed a lawsuit against AMV BBDO after being forced to leave.
As for the purpose of ad people, this is an interesting topic, and I believe you are wrong even from a business perspective.
When we talk about global brands, our responsibility is not to be lapdogs for eccentric CMOs but to ensure long-term brand health and growth. Greenwashing can backfire badly — just look at what happened to VW after Dieselgate and their false claims. Check VW’s stock performance at the time, the billion-dollar lawsuits from investors, etc.
This kind of thinking is also toxic for both agency and corporate professionals on HR perspective.
Based
No cap
I like her. I feel like lots of people in this industry get silenced when speaking out and are either made to leave a place either get pushed out through not the most honest HR practices.
What’s odd to me is that at a large enough agency like AMV BBDO there is a step that could be taken that doesn’t involve her stepping down or a law suit.
She could go to her superiors and explain that for moral/ethical reasons she feels like she can’t work on this project and ask to get pulled from it without needing to quit or sue. Sure, it’s not a great look but there are plenty of other creatives and briefs at AMV BBDO. That’s what’s a creative resource manager manages.
This one brief isn’t keeping the lights on for the agency and it’s in their best interest to not give an employee cause to file a lawsuit against them or share damaging claims about their client. That makes me believe she wanted to quit, as opposed to simply not wanting to do work on one brief that she found unethical.
Not saying that none of this stuff didn’t happen to her but it’s a pretty common tactic to go to the media and garner public support to pressure a company who you are in litigation with. How long was she at BBDO for? Did she raise these issues long before the lawsuits and media attention?
What is it you want to talk about?
It’s pretty clear and I am sure most people feel indifferent about it.
There are bigger things directly affecting people where in reality this would not. How many times have we seen brands do ‘bad’ things but after a week or three it’s under the rug and business as usual.
I think it’s an interesting topic to fall on your sword for. I guess change starts somewhere…though will this change anything?