Neil French enters sexism in adland debate with post suggesting Cindy Gallop ‘protests too much’ over sexual harassment claims

I like how French always falls back on the “I’m just being honest/telling it like it is” get out clause, as if that in some way validates his opinion as being some kind of universal truth.

Usually easy to call bullshit on people who do that.

We get it: Sexism, bullies and opportunists are part of the industry.
Will anything change? Probably not.
Some women get it bad from A-holes bosses, clients and colleagues.
And some women do get ahead when they use their charms on weakling bosses,clients and colleagues.

This is like watching the fun loving OAP uncle trading insults with the always angry ‘cat lady’ aunt at a lunch we rather not be at.
Both are from a long forgotten era.
And have nothing fresh to add to the business of advertising today.
Robin, please stop passing off FB posts as industry news.

Oh Neil, it’s not a big deal indeed. It’s just like seeing your daughter being groped by some pervy older guy during the peaks of her career. No big deal, it happens. Can’t tell you how much it makes her day!

Well….at least you can’t lose a multi million pound global job for saying the same dumb things TWICE.

I think Neil should take a lesson from Denis Thatcher:

“Better keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than open it and remove all doubt”

That said, I’m not sure quoting Facebook updates is the best thing. I know it’s in the public domain and all that, but it just feels TMZ. Though I also accept I could be saying that because I save my greatest rubbish for my Facebook account.

Groping, touching, suggestive language, and generally making women uncomfortable happens every day in the workplace, and it’s not ok. Just put your daughter in the place of every woman who stands up and speaks for herself, and you will understand why this issue is so important. It’s not women whining – it’s a real thing that happens all the time,and can really derail someone’s self esteem at work. Cindy Gallop is a tireless leader in this fight and we support her all the way.

100% agree Cindy. Was likewise surprised, but not shocked, how many women contacted me directly, needing to share/vent their stories of sexism, harassment and assault after writing this article: http://mumbrella.com.au/bec-brideson-maurice-we-dont-think-this-is-minor-357680

Very hard to accept Neil French as a credible source after his 2005 career-ending conference performance which, let us not forget, included a waitress dressed in a “French maid” costume serving him whisky on stage.

Me thinks this guy whines too much and is having issues dealing with his irrelevancy. It happens.

Looking forward to flying out to Mumbrella in June to hear Cindy Gallop speak. Many of us are.

Oh, what a surprise! A men telling a woman to shut up about sexism and sexual harassment. That’s some revolutionary thinking right there, Neil. Men like you, who “believe in equality, but not in preference” are one of the main reasons why inequality still exists. Check your privileges, dude. You are embarassing yourself.

It’s appalling that in this day and age after countless stories, articles and TV shows, people can still turn a blind eye to this. And women who believe one bad apple doesn’t spoil the whole bunch must be in the midst of the Stockholm Syndrome that takes hold when you live in the heart of the agency world, when you rise up the ranks are expected to fall in line and excuse the behavior. When your creative director asks you to cover for his affair while on production, when you are asked by countless directors of your holding company if you’ve been sleeping with your CEO (how else could you have risen so far?) Fielding phone calls from clients asking that your CEO no longer attend meetings because he refers to his employees as “broads” and it makes her uncomfortable. Have I ever been raped in the advertising business? No. Does that mean its not a sexist, uncomfortable, unfair place to work? No.

Kudos to Bob Garfield for being a good man who refuses to pretend he has seen nothing, with the courage to say something. It’s appalling to see denial so prevalent across almost every field of endeavor, not just in advertising. My work brings me into contact with thousands of women who have experienced harassment in their professional lives, most fearful of speaking up because they will not be believed or their experience will be trivialized. It’s going to change eventually; too bad the Neil French generation will probably have to die first, and that means I probably won’t live to see it.

Why are men so threatened by women who speak out on this topic? Oh, that’s right. It’s not all men, or even most. Just the hideous ones afraid of being outed.

I’m sorry but UGH! This issue is widespread across MANY industries, sexual harassment IS a problem, and yes, old white men should NOT presume to speak for us! I worked in the ad agency world for many years and Neil French’s comments are par for the course.

It is lovely to hear that so many women are still propositioning Neil and that he is thrilled with each encounter. I remember him being exactly the same when he was married to my boss. But far too many women are being sexually harassed in a way that makes them feel uncomfortable and in many cases scared, especially if the harasser is older and in a position of authority. I have been harassed many times, sometimes to the point of having to physically force a client away from me at an agency party, and I can assure you it is terrifying experience. And it is made far worse when senior figures tell you that you are blowing things out of proportion.

Yet again, Neil French misses the point that the problem is about structural power, which is why Cindy advocates for an active push to put more women in top roles. In French’s case, he equates his being propositioned by women who have no career power over him with Cindy’s experience being propositioned in a room full of men who DO. Neil gets an ego boost and no consequences for (presumably, but maybe not) turning these women down down. Cindy feels compelled to “be nice” in a room full of “prominent industry people” that are mostly men – she can’t afford to seem too shrill OR too frigid, because she will be judged by a different standard, and it will affect her professionally in a way it doesn’t affect Neil. When she finally does have to really turn this boor down, she gets verbally abused in a way that would never happen to Neil. He’s self-centered enough to think that if something doesn’t happen to him, it must not happen to anyone.

Men can be blind to the sexist culture of their chosen industry both because they don’t experience the sexism, and because they choose to believe that it’s a “one bad apple’ situation. They can continue believing this because women rarely tell men about these experiences, knowing that if they do, they’ll be punished for speaking up, just as Neil is punishing Cindy by publicly calling into question her experience. A. Hope Jahren recently described in an NYT op-ed on how this bizarre denial of a systemic problem is exactly what continually erodes the progress of women into top positions in every male-dominated industry. Without active commitment to change the ratio of women in leadership roles from 3% to 50%, what we’re seeing in this article is exactly what she describes happening in her industry: “… my male colleagues will sputter with gall, appalled by the actions of bad apples so rare they have been encountered by every single woman I know.” And so it continues…

I can’t count the number of conversations I’ve had privately with women who are too intimidated to speak publicly about the harassment they endured. What I can’t imagine is why he thinks he has any legitimacy in speaking to Ms. Gallop’s experiences. Why does he presume to tell us that this happened one time and one time only? He only yells so loud to try to drown out her own voice. He makes the oldest attack in the book – insulting her allure. We all know that’s the only measure of a woman’s value, right?

Here’s what French said at the conference in Toronto that got him fired from WPP in 2005: “Women don’t make it to the top because they don’t deserve to. They’re crap.”
He added that women inevitably “wimp out and go suckle something”. According to the Telegraph, “During the discussion, Mr French, 61, had a waitress wearing a French maid’s uniform serve him drinks.”

Eleven years later and French hasn’t reformed his ways or his opinion of women. He’s a white guy who was once at the top of the pyramid presuming to know what others experience better than they know themselves, and then jumping up and down trying to get attention for his misogyny. What a dinosaur.

Cindy Gallop asked a good question of him, “Why is it so hard for you to simply believe and listen to women?” I doubt French has the insight to know what she is even talking about. He couldn’t care less what women think, believe or say.

What’s the best way to silence a fool? With data. The 3% Conference surveyed around this very issue last summer. 23% of ad women had witnessed or experienced sexual harassment in the workplace and in only 8% of those cases was the perpetrator punished. And that’s IN THE OFFICE itself, not at Cannes or on shoots or at other boozy events.

It’s one thing to “get it”, It’s another thing to do something about it. Every time Cindy speaks up there is an internal (and often external) cheer in the heart of every woman who is working in these environments. Never stop pointing it out, Cindy, never stop. We need you.

Shocking and appalling. But, if we were looking for the perfect example to validate that the issue exists, we need to look further than Mr French’s comments.

In a recent NYTimes piece on harassment in the sciences, the woman who wrote it noted that the bad apples were “so rare they have been encountered by every single woman I know.” Whether oysters or apples or bottle of wine, the bad ones are legion. And while our social norms and power structures help them stay undetected, they’re harming the careers of women everywhere.

You would think that being a forerunner to Gustavo Martinez in getting sacked from WPP would mean he would have the sense to keep his mouth shut. A dinosaur with the track record of Neil French has nothing to add to this debate.

“French, who left his role as worldwide creative director of WPP in 2005 after remarks he made about female creatives, suggested in a post on Facebook that Gallop had overblown an account of sexual harassment ”
…This is hilarious.

Thank God for Neil French.
The industry is so damn dull these days.
At least he gives us something to talk about.

What disgrace that female creative director, Louise Plaun, can only come up with a lame and irrelevant comparison to eating one bad oyster. God her creative contribution to a campaign must be dire, still she’s assuring her job in a sexist industry. People like her are as bad as French in my estimation: an enabler. As for French, he seems rather stupid. Claiming Gallop is exaggerating but basically making as many sexist comments as he can to a provide evidence her claims are completely true.

Thanks, Neil French. You have become an example of what good men DON’T want to be. Now the real question is which clients will hire you. Won’t be buying their products. #VotingWithMyDollars

Why we are even talking about a dinosaur who was fired is beyond me. He probably thinks digital is the screen on his microwave. Sexism exists everywhere, true, but more so in advertising because it’s generally run by a bunch of aged, white male suits. No women in senior management (or the pretext of having some who are essentially token figures who have no real say – or balls – to do anything). Doubt if this will ever change. Who cares, the ad industry is going to the dogs – literally and figuratively.

French is a clever man….way more clever than 99% of the idiots operating today…but he has a fool’s grasp of social media (and flapping his mouth on it).

Whats a 70 year old guy doing on Facebook anyway…shouldn’t he be training bullfighters or giving the hookers and pfizer some business?

I agree with Kat – the data shows that sexism is still an issue, aside from all the situations we have heard about first second or even third hand. As men we need to be feminists too and fight hard for an environment where everyone feels safe and able to succeed

This is an interesting one.

Two people who have been out of the industry for a while, chiming in on a subject and receiving some publicity for doing it.

Cindy needs this kind of attention… she survives on the speaking and consultancy circuit and her scam businesses (Make Love Not Porn, If we ran the world) have been milked for all of the PR that they can leverage her – so she needs a new platform.

“Advocate for women in an industry she left” is a good fit with the brand that she sells and good luck to her – I may see it as a cynical attempt to cash in, but if she can bring attention to the shit that happens in this business, then so be it. Hey at least we won’t have to listen to her stories about young men wanting to cum on her face anymore (the clacking earring’d Ted talk is still out there)

I can’t really fathom Neil’s urge to rush in here – other than perhaps he was irked by Cindy’s constant, self promoting, self righteous indignation and rent an anecdote attitude, or maybe feeding his own image as advertising’s Jeremy Clarkson.

Whatever the motivation I’m quite enjoying the froth at the mouth style of the comments here…

So, once again, the pack of online dogs is loose, toeing the PC line, saying what sounds good to the general populace and mauling someone who they don’t agree with.

A balanced view would be good.

No one should applaud or endorse what French is saying…he is just an old-fashioned MCP whose entire career has been built on shocking and saying outrageous things. Who remembers him strolling into the CCA awards ballroom when Ball Partnership won just about every award on the night, accompanied by a suspiciously young looking thai strumpet on his arm? That’s just how this guy rolls.

On the other hand, I would like to examine Cindy Gallop’s agenda more closely. If she is to be believed, every agency is filled with young women who live and work in constant fear of being raped or molested by someone in senior management…this is clearly nonsense. You do get the occasional misbehaviour and punishment is usually severe, if not swift. And this happens in law firms, banks, stockbroking firms and even at high levels of government.

Perhaps Cindy would also like to start a campaign against all the american rappers who have singlehandedly vilified women in all their lyrics…and chastise the women actually dance to their stuff and buy their records.

And I am not sure of her assertion that putting more women in top management makes things any better in the world. Carly Fiorina ran HP into the ground. Over at Yahoo, Marisa Mayer is showing that she is not much better than any man…4 years on the job and nothing to show for it. And in advertising too, there is plenty of evidence that women C-Suites are just as likely to flagrantly abuse their power, be extremely vindictive and make irrational decisions …. just like men do.

Mr French appears to be a truly fine pedigree of retarded dinosaur. Until many of his ilk are removed from this industry, sadly, I see little opportunity for genuine progress. It’s ironic that in an industry that should pride itself on being forward thinking and creative, seems so residual when it comes to some of the creatures that exist today.

Hi Neil….fantasising you’re jeremy clarkson….That’s a bit much…darlin’

Btw, youre dead wrong on Cindy.

We ALL know it should read:

Methinks she DOTH protest too much.

While it’s ridiculous and a little too tabloid for my liking to be commenting on Facebook thread screenshots in this case the issue is definitely worth talking about. You can’t make that kind of ignorant and crass comments expecting cheap laughs (or what the hell was he expecting?).

In France the saying goes that Mr French missed an opportunity to shut up. Someone else in the comment thread said he’s a dinosaur, maybe he is, he’s apparently one with influence and I’d like to see people with infuence in the industry forward useful conversations about diversity (or just hire and listen to women & minorities, no need to talk) rather than perpetuate that kind of misogynist old white guy crap.

Ban alcohol at all ad events and guess what will happen to the problem – it will go away!

OMG what sexism? South East Asia ads feature some of the most progressive images and ideas! No wonder kids these days yawn/snort at tv/cinema ads.

It shocks me it’s 2016 and now we’re finally talking about this.

French’s lack of social context and perspective is just classic grumpy old liar losing his grip on reality.

Louise Plaun’s totally lame oyster analogy (and flabby delivery) is a testament to how sexism allowed a few light-weight floaters to rise to the top. And how some females are really their own worst enemy.

Thank you Gallop and other intelligent males and females for not turning a blind eye.

I’m still trying to figure out why bullfighting and managing Judas Priest are considered to be positives on French’s CV.