Desperate times require desperate measures – never more so when you have many mouths to feed – however, as tough as the economy is for adland, I still find it amazing that WPP/Y&R [allegedly] found it acceptable to make this political commercial for Robert Mugabe.
Mind you, given the WPP/Y&R office in question [allegedly] employed a member of the evil Dictator’s family, I guess money comes before humanity.
This is beyond doing work for organisations like cigarette companies … this is helping a man who the World has highlighted as a tyrant and vicious dictator … so as WPP go about retrenching literally thousands of employees all around the World – under the guise of maintaining profitability in these tough economic times – [even though they are keeping the top brass … who are the top money earners … who are, in the main, the smallest link with the clients … in their privileged, pampered lives] I hope WPP’s shareholders can look themselves in the mirror given their constant demands for ever increasing returns, play a very significant part in the decline of adlands already screwed up moral compass.
As much as I am advocate of looking after your people, I don’t believe a company should go bankrupt for it – however when an organisation is making massive profits whilst still paying excessively high salaries to many, many senior people [whilst in many cases, underpaying the average worker in relation to the hours they do] – then I think any excuse linked to ‘economic hardship’ is pretty lame.
I worked for WPP twice in my life – and I was treated well and generally had a decent time – however I was continually shocked at how many senior people [but certainly not all] I met who were obviously on the ‘gravy train’.
Of course this is not limited to WPP … hell, it’s not just an adland issue … but it’s still wrong and whilst the moral view of many of these actions is subjective, I think doing ads for an evil political dictator would be pretty universally condemned.
I love this industry … I love what it can do … I love the energy and passion and excitement of many of the people in it – but sadly we’ve become another ‘business’, one whose preoccupation is with profit rather than profiting from the development [and execution] of good, powerful, infectious and profitable ideas.
I’m not being commercially naive, I’m being commercially realistic. Aren’t I?