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I hear you, but it's not like our industry is exactly overflowing with female creative leadership of any race. I've worked at three agencies in my career and have encountered exactly four women with a CD title or higher.
I know people will disagree with me here, however I simply don't think we should include white female CCOs as being equal to yet another white man getting the gig.
It's no excuse for neglecting POC. But I'm happy to see more women in those positions. And I'm looking forward to see many more women get them, including women of color and women in the LGBTQ+ community.
Sad reality: digital agencies are a bastion of racism and sexism but in the most nefarious and underhanded way possible I.e. conscious and unconscious bias at play not straightforward open. Worked at traditional agencies my entire career and there were far more POC and women in management roles than at any of the three digital shops I’ve worked at. Ours being one of them.
Curious. And a totally general question. Are we celebrating women in leadership positions even when they create an environment full of toxicity and bullying? Women who don’t champion other women, but play the boys club game to solely benefit themselves?
blind and deaf celebrations?
Shut up guys they’ll hear you!
I can’t speak to the competency of the women promoted, but I think it’s a bit sad we can’t be happy for FINALLY having more female creative leadership. This time last year, Debbi was the only woman in creative leadership (if not the only, one of the only, and she mentioned it as something she wanted to address this year because she knew it was a problem). The creative department leadership in some offices is ALL male. It’s nice to see a woman in leadership anywhere. I didn’t see this level of scrutiny for any other man in leadership...
I’ve seen the breakdown of percentage of hiring this year and even during the freeze, VML finally sought to prioritize BIPOC. The numbers aren’t amazing, but they’re so much better than last year VML even during pandemic circumstances. We saw new faces like Walter Greer— in an office with an over abundance of leadership positions already (not knocking his hire, just shows where VML’s priority has been this year). We saw well-deserved promotions like Myron. Plus other BIPOC, Native American, LGBTQ+ promotions. Obviously we have SO much more work to do, but the DEI has Tasha Gilroy whose focus is getting the right people in the roles. The DEI has huge events promoting inclusion and asking people in places like KC with few Black employees to open themselves up to understanding movements that— let’s be real— many would never be exposed to beyond what’s shown on TV. It’s a process and it’s a focus of the company whether you’re in the weeds to see what’s happening or not.
Celebrate all success. There are so many moments to question in hires and promotions but some people deserve them. At VML, being a woman in leadership IS diverse and rare and it’s about time they were recognized. If some of the women low key are self-serving that absolutely sucks and you should take your issues to HR... and also question how many CDs in your office can you truly say can’t be scrutinized the same? I’ve had male CDs make passes at me, make lewd comments, and leave me off of award mentions. I’m STOKED to have more female representation— if just to be more comfortable at work and to know the company has a place for women in leadership— and even more stoked for future BIPOC female representation within creative the way the Finance, HR, content strategy, and experience strategy department do. Don’t minimize the work Myron’s team has done in tandem with leadership in your efforts to say women aren’t qualified for positions of leadership. You don’t have to knock women to demand more from your company— you can also get involved very easily by raising your hand to Suba. Don’t be salty if you see no change when you’re not a part of the efforts to make it!
And let’s not forget that one of these women did nothing to hire, support, or retain the women and POC they were managing. Seriously just look at their team and history. Can’t believe something so obvious is ignored by some, especially in leadership positions who claim to be champions of women and diversity.
Who should it have been?
Look at all of the white folks saying that a win for these white women is a win for us all hahahahaha no thank you
Exactly SC1. My response said nothing like that: it said to stop ignoring progress. It IS a win for women in leadership which are rare at VML— no one said it’s a win for everyone. It’s not apples to apples so let’s stop acting like deserving women are a detriment to progress— which is still happening and a focus at VML in a ton of other hires and promotions this year. It’s annoying that we have to bring down women when the issue isn’t women at all but VML and their own growth toward establishing more influence from BIPOC.
There are two issues in this thread:
- were those women worthy of the promotion
- why weren’t BIPOC named as CCOs instead (despite the fact that there were new ECD and Black creative office leads also hired this year which OP ignored)
Let’s not conflate them. No one said white women in leadership solve our issues, but it does help the one issue of few women in creative leadership.
Why do we have 53636384 CCOs now?
One CCO per person
One CCO per letter.
I agree there should be more diverse talent at the C-Suite level. But women, of any race or ethnicity, as a whole have experienced disadvantages and oppression. And as a woman, factors like sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, religion, ability etc. mean additional layers of disadvantages or oppression.
In short, sexism is still a thing. And we need people to ban together to recognize and change that so all types of women can be included.
Rising Star
That's just how "progress" is in our racist America
Rich white men -> white men -> white women (you are here) -> minority men -> minority women
Can’t we just find a nice non-binary CCO who is pan-advertising curious?
New York’s hottest club is VMLY&R, they’ve got nonbinary pan curious ad savants, wookies in wheelchairs, human suitcases...
I’ve been watching the promotions and hires on a national level and, yes, noticed the trend. White women are getting hired in higher level agency positions, while Black women are being siphoned off and out of the way into D&I positions.
DDB might be celebrating it. Her portfolio is not good at all.
And people at DDB were not fans of one of them. She did some shady things.
She’s slim shady yes she’s the real shady?
Simmer down. Females are considered diverse.
Yes, we know. That’s clearly why this keeps happening.
Pretty sure 3% conference worked. Now how do we help our Black and Brown colleagues with the same vigor as white women have enjoyed post me-too?
Chief
Who were the POC candidates who applied for the job and got turned down? Do you know if any POC applied for the job?
Excited and advocate for woman and POC hires? Is that a nice way of saying she doesn’t actually hire or promote them?
Can you name one POC that she hired on her team before VMLY&R promoted her to global CCO and is now pushing her to do?
I’ll make it easy, just give me a number. In all your years of working with her, let me know.
VMLYR having so many CCOs in all their offices is telling of the agency. The CCO in Chicago doesn’t even lead that office 😂
Better than yet another incompetent white male as one? Baby steps? No? Just me?
Chief
Let’s generalize white men as incompetent. Because prejudice is the answer!
Her... challenging... personality aside, didn’t she just successfully defend Walgreens in a review? I wonder if VML rewarded that, rather than not rewarding it because her promotion came at a politically inopportune moment? That win was a big deal for WPP— not just creative, not just VML.
Also, we’re truly in the upside down; I’m defending Mel.
The account was placed in review before Mel was hired, it just wasn’t announced publicly. Deal was that If she retained the account, she stayed to lead it. So guess it worked out for her. Also, she’s not really a creative, she’s more of an account person. She’s terrible.
I think they just did this because the male CCOs aren’t useful nor liked by clients, but clients liked these women.