Leo Burnett Sydney CEO’s open letter on equality debate
Leo Burnett Sydney CEO Pete Bosilkovski has released a statement on the gender diversity debate sparked by the agency’s press release around five all-white male creative hires.
Over the last week, our company sparked and has been at the centre of a conversation about gender diversity. While one photo isn’t reflective of our company, it does highlight that we clearly have an issue to address.
And we need to publicly recognise that. This is an industry-wide issue, but we have to tend to our own backyard. We acknowledge that we have some work to do when it comes to gender diversity in our creative department here. It’s an uncomfortable truth, but one that we need to face up to.
The Communications Council, along with the CEO of Leo Burnett Melbourne, Melinda Geertz, have done some important work in this area. Our commitment now is to do better. We believe in diversity as a company and as individuals, and we have a policy. But clearly, we have not lived up to the standards we set in the creative department.
This is a humbling week for us, and we now need to move forward with greater intent and actions. We certainly have a lot of work to do and we are committed to turning the conversation into action.
- Pete Bosilkovski, CEO, Leo Burnett Sydney
Related:
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- ‘What the fuck are u thinking?’: Cindy Gallop’s tirade at Leo Burnett’s all white male hires
- The ad industry’s secret shame
- Unfkable women’s network launches ‘same tools’ campaign amid Leo Burnett controversy
- Leo Burnett Sydney breaks silence saying it hired all-male creative team because ‘they were the best’ after storm of criticism
- Why I’m discriminating with my new agency’s hires
- Leo’s Friday afternoon tweets highlight the industry’s problems with equality
- While Rome burns, we are busy building a new city
- Leo Burnett staffer tells freelancer she lost a job for sharing story about agency on Facebook
- Leo Burnett Sydney CEO: staffer’s Facebook threat to freelancer was ’emotional response’
6 days to respond to a firestorm of criticism and the second statement in a day – Was his hand finally forced from above? You’d have to suggest so.
That aside, the whole saga would have left me feeling marginalised if I was in Gertz position. The statement above seemingly wants to address that.
I do feel sorry for the wider Burnett team who have been caught up in schoolyard antics of the Sydney office.
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… Leo’s Toronto have made a spot that probably isn’t helping this situation at all with regards to their view of women in the workplace…
http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/.....ain-168058
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Is that all he’s got???
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Well done, finally CEO acknowledgement that there is an “issue”.
Why they didnt do this at the outset is plain bizarre. Instead they fired off 4 tweets on a Friday arvo trying to defend themselves, when at teh same time their creative department has a 30:1 gender ratio… that just made the incoming PR flack worse..
Now they come out with the statement that should have been said 6 days ago.. would have avoided 6 days of negative PR and derision by the industry..
So – They have finally acknowledged they have a gender imbalance in their creative department.
We can all move on now..
And lesson to all CEOs: next time when there is a fact/issue you cant really defend, best to say “we have work to do” – which everyone can get behind – rather than give a limp defence quoting various hand picked statistics but ignoring the one statistic that’s relevant – number of people in creative department, from which these 5 senior creatives were promoted. 30:1 is not defendable.
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What forced his hand? I don’t think it was from above. I’d say it was the prospect the story was going to appear on the front page of the SMH and News.com.au.
When you progress to making national headlines, ‘no comment’ just won’t cut it.
This release was rushed. Front page headlines were coming.
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Full points to Leo’s for finally saying something… Late but it’s a start. Ok so where do the other creative CEOs stand?
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Oh for god’s sake why didn’t they release this 6 days ago?
Own the problem, contain the outrage. Simple.
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Fixed the typo in the weasel
Word press release. Nice One. The reality is there is no concrete action. But what else does an agency sell? Just words… …not action
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Thank you for owning the truth.
This pervasive distain, disrespect and disregard of women is why Australia has one of the worst domestic violence records in the world.
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first real challenge for Boso as the new CEO of Leo’s and although he’s said the right things, he needed to have jumped on this last week as this thing has festered. can’t believe that staff weren’t told not to comment in social on the topic
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This took you a week?
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While this is has been an unacceptable length of time for the Burnett CEO to respond, I will cut him a bit of slack.
He is young and very new in the job – I’m sure this has been a learning experience for him.
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Normal people would see six creative people being hired and not six males.
Look at what’s happening on the other side of the world and we are focusing on photo about six people.
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If it’s a talkfest can we at least hear from the Unicorns of the industry? The all-too-rare female CDs?
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What is the solution? #becauseits2015
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Get a grip – this issue is not exclusive issue to Leo Burnett it is systemic to the industry.
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@anonymous. Guess I am not a “normal people”.
I instantly saw 6 white, trendy, groovy “we know we’re” clever” guys, goofing off on a sofa, all very Lad-ish. A boys club. That’s the message I got.
Days later the “What the Fuck Are They Thinking” shitstorm hit…… and once again I knew I was still finely calibrated with the collective unconscious..
For mine, the late Friday (I’m guessing post-drinkies) tweets were the real low point.
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Sadly women will not speak up for fear of being bulled or branded a dreaded feminist. n Australia that is a one way ticket to the creative scrap heap. No one will even give you freelance
I am a female CD yes one of those long haired unicorns you speak of and I will never go public about this until it is made safe for me to do so.
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The solution is for the CEO’s and MD’s to hire senior CREATIVE women into CREATIVE positions of power and influence. More female group heads, CDs and yes God forbid ECD’s
hen and only then will things change.
The AWARD obsessed culture of our business is also to blame. Creative departments are filled with men more interested in AWARDs than anything else. I love awards but they are not everything we are in the business if selling sh*t aren’t we?
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I starting to find this a little weird. The advertising model is under pressure because amongst other things clients are looking for insight to drive ideas. They get these insights all over the place because they are forced to go looking for them. If you need to tackle marketing to girls/women 12 – 16 they go looking for someone who really/truly knows this market. They collaborate on an idea and the implementation could be done anywhere.
Real creativity requires diversity. Diversity of opinion, race, experience etc. The opportunity is for new businesses to emerge from this kind of structural problem.
Women have so much to offer. They are generally more empathetic so they are better able to listen and digest insights. They work better in teams than lots of men. etc. Why the angst about an old model of 2015 Don Draper – white blokes who look the same , think the same and do the same.
Start fresh – it’s what the clients want. These guys at Leos actually think they are the best. Best for what! Start your own party, be diverse, be digital, be different – clients will thank you.
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Enough already.
This is all getting little Salem-esque.
BURN THE CEO! BURN THE CEO!
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He took so long because for anyone that actually hire knows if you have 5 positions to fill that you hire the best 5 talents available! Not the best 3 people around and then the best of the bunch who fit the diversity criteria.
Hire on portfolio’s and quality of past work and stand by it!
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Extremely disappointed Leo Burnett did not back their choice of staff.
Surely they must back their creative department by saying “we have hired the best available.” How does this look to their clients – “We didn’t hire the best to work for you – we hired a boys’ club clique” ?
They are a major worldwide business company – this rather sad little release does not say “We are in charge. We are not going to be bullied by people who use our company for pushing their own boat. Ask us first or mind your own business.”
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There’s someone missing in all this, someone who is normally all over the media, someone who the buck stops with. Where is Told?
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