Look, it’s no secret how I feel about being laid off from Arnold. Some have suggested the writing was on the wall, that I should have been more aware of signs that I was dead weight in need of pruning. Whatever. I think otherwise. And given I was the one who was let go, I would.
But the bullshit battle between current and ex-Arnold employees on Adweek is beyond ridiculous. I actually side with “Arnold Lover” on this. Their current state has nothing to do with Pete Favat or Pam Hamlin. As one ex-colleague of mine put it, “Pete’s judged more award shows than I’ve entered.” He knows great work. He’s done great work. He and the rest of the management team had nothing to do with VW leaving. They had everything to do with winning Volvo, Carnival, and taking over the entire Truth account from Crispin.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the larger issue goes well beyond what happens at 101 Huntington. As anyone who has seen the documentary The Corporation can attest, the primary goal of any publicly held organization is shareholder value. In fact, it is illegal to do anything related to your business that doesn’t act in the best interest of its stock price.
So when Arnold lays off 100 people in less than six months (don’t believe the lowball numbers they feed the press), or pitches accounts that aren’t – or have no hope of becoming – creative showcases, you have Havas to blame. Quarterly numbers and long-term business models are direct and polar competitors. Arnold isn’t losing Radio Shack, Havas is. Arnold isn’t laying people off, Havas is. If you want to get mad at anyone, get mad at Vincent Bollore. Get mad at impatient stock holders who demand return now, in this quarter. Get mad at the publicly held model of advertising agencies. Because with rare exception (I’m having trouble of thinking of another example besides Goodby), it doesn’t work.
7 Comments
I absolutely agree that awards-or-lack-therof had absolutely nothing to do with Arnold’s most recent round of layoffs. Whoever implies that has not been keeping up with the news. I also totally agree that it is Havas’ stock price that is driving the slaughter. However, it is hard to feel sorry for Pete or Ed when, after previous mass layoffs, THEY have delivered ‘pep talks’ to the survivors describing the firings as simply a matter of getting rid of unwanted fat, making Arnold leaner and better. THEY forgot that the unwanted fat had families, no benefits, worries — and would probably be hearing about these pep talks as they struggled to figure out how to pay their bills. Pete might have won more awards than anybody around — but, in my book, none for warmth and humanity.
Well said, Erik. This article applies to every agency and holding company out there. Replace Arnold with Ogilvy and Havas with WPP, same thing.
Since when did it become cool to talk shit in Adweek comments?
Well said. And yes, and corporations got us into this mess. This may sound odd since we work in this industry, but the less I work for corporate america, the better. I’ve always taken the independent boutique shop or client route. Even in freelance, looking for my own clients. Then at least I am to blame if I screw it up.
I’ve never understood why money-worshippers even go into advertising in the first place.
If money is most important to you, it seems you could do alot better in other industries with equal or less effort.
Wha! Wa! Whaaa!
What a bunch of crybabies you advertising people are.
Mark,
Money-worshippers go into advertising because, when times are good, it is hard to find another way to make money with much less effort. Picture the houses, cars, boats some of the people at the top live in, drive, etc. It’s just that, when times are bad, it is one of the first industries to get affected and then, well — the fat has to be trimmed.
Erik is completely right. When you’re independent, you can choose to ride out a bad time without laying people off if you don’t want to. You can choose to offer a lower rate to a potential new client to get the biz. You can choose to do a lot of things that, if you were public, wouldn’t be good for shareholders.
But when you’re a public company, it ALL comes down to numbers. I’ve been at places where, as an ACD, I spent the majority of my time having to project my entire team’s billability for the quarter – by hours per day on individual jobs – just so we could “meet our numbers.” Nevermind we didn’t even know what assignments were coming in that quarter.
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