Mark Read's Folly: Ageism in Advertising

Here39s what Read said to an analyst as reported in Campaign quotIf you were to sit through a client presentation or if you were to sit through meetings we have it39s not Mad Men we39re not sitting there thinking about 30second TV ads amp8230 We have a very broad range of skills and if you look at our people amp8211 the average age of someone who works at WPP is less than 30 amp8211 they don39t hark back to the 1980s luckilyquotCampaign headlined Gideon Spanier39s story Mark Read on Reopening Offices Job Cuts Accenture and his amp16348 ExpensesThe fuss has been rather less about the extravagance of the amp16348 and rather more about what many see as an ageist remarkTo be fair Read has sortof apologised and before someone has a go at me the grammar and punctuation are all his quotAll ages are valued at WPP and the last thing I would want to suggest is otherwise and of course experience is valued I was asked by an analyst if we had too many people who just did TV ads at WPP and this was my response I guess I said it to try to make the point that this wasn39t what our people did I certainly don39t want suggest that age is any way a good thing on its own and I39m sorry that is how it readsquotFirst it39s worth getting even the smallest facts right The Mad Men era was not the 198039s The final series ended with Don Draper dreaming up the famous Coke 39Hilltop39 ad which aired in 1971Next as Cog Blog aficionado Alan Brydon pointed out on Twitter quotI seem to recall that the 80s were full of stunningly successful ad campaigns with brilliant creative and media work driving huge sales for clientsquotAdvertising today is not exactly brimming over with 39stunningly successful39 campaigns Rather as all kinds of surveys have shown trust in advertising is close to an alltime low Creative standards are by general consent abysmalYou can argue that this is due to all sorts of factors but to suggest that we are living through some sort of golden age brought about by the diversified skills of a holding company is as absurd as suggesting that we can learn nothing from the pastIf I was a client looking at the output from my agencies advertising media research data analytics PR social media influence marketers I think I may find myself pining for the time when commercial messages of all shapes and sizes just seemed to work betterThen there39s the age issue I was genuinely amazed to discover that according to its CEO WPP39s average age across the business is under 30 apparently it isn39t by the way Admittedly they have sold Kantar amp8211 where much experience and wisdom resides amp8211 but even soAgeism is nothing new as I know from personal experience Claire Beale whom I had never met wrote a spiteful piece in Campaign the industry39s mouthpiece remember when I took over Universal McCann EMEA saying that surely they could have found someone younger for the role Clients disagreedAs I write Gideon Spanier has addressed the ageist pointIt is weird as Bob Hoffman says that we don39t seem surprised when people over a certain age win the Nobel prize Or Emmys Or Oscars But it is clearly beyond the wit of old gits to write an online ad or plan a multimedia campaignThere39s also a certain irony that the financial driving force of WPP GroupM was started and built by the likes of Irwin Gotlieb Rob Norman Nick Theakstone Steve Allen and the rest No disrespect to them but even back then they weren39t kidsShouldn39t the Board and management team at WPP at least reflect this commitment to the young I haven39t checked is the WPP Board39s average age younger than that of the average FTSE 100 BoardCindy Gallop Dave Trott Bob Hoffman and many others have done a great job demolishing the age argument but it is worth making the additional point that spending time on great TV ads might be just what clients needNot the only thing that was a mistake of the past but big famegenerating ideas which inevitably start life on TV before taking flight across all communication channels and not just ad channels combined with real results tracked and measured by great data people wouldn39t be such a terrible ideaRead The Age of Aging column weekly at MediaVillageClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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Mark Read's Folly: Ageism in Advertising

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Brian Jacobs

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Mark Read's Folly: Ageism in Advertising

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