Ad agencies take decisive steps, many heads roll

MUMBAI: The #MeToo wave hit the advertising and media industry after women began opening up about the allegedly toxic work environment created by some of the industry’s biggest names.

Ad agencies implicated so far are Happy mcgarrybowen, Dentsu Webchutney and iProspect India (all part of Denstu Aegis Network), 22feet Tribal WW (DDB Mudra Group), Publicis India (Publicis Groupe) and independent agencies Famous Innovations, Creativeland Asia and Utopeia Communicationz.

In the content space, AIB saw its founders Tanmay Bhat and Gursimran Khamba exit the company, which also has an ad division called Vigyapanti. This week, Ashish Patil of Y-Films was made to leave after allegations of sexual exploitation were made against him.


After damning #MeToo accounts of sexual misconduct and harassment emerged two weeks ago, on Thursday Happy mcgarrybowen’s founders Kartik Iyer and Praveen Das, and its creative director Bodhisatwa Dasgupta, all stepped down from their positions at the agency. iPropspect’s Dinesh Swamy was also made to leave the agency. A Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) statement read: “Dentsu Aegis Network has always believed in providing a safe environment at our workplaces, which is free from any kind of harassment. We have a zero tolerance policy towards any kind of harassment at our workplaces.”

Ashish Bhasin, chairman — South Asia declined ET’s request for a comment on the latest development. Last week, he sent an internal memo to all DAN employees stating, “…As an organisation we do not and WILL NOT accept anything but professional behaviour at the workplace. We are committed to taking any complaint in this context to a speedy conclusion post thorough investigation. Any employee found guilty of inappropriate behaviour will face disciplinary action, including immediate termination from services.”

While the said agencies are part of a global agency network, the situation gets particularly troublesome at independent shops like Famous Innovations, Creativeland Asia (CLA) and Utopeia Communicationz. Their founders, Raj Kamble, Sajan Raj Kurup and Sudarshan Banerjee, respectively, are the accused. Banerjee is “on leave” pending investigation after four women accused him of improper conduct and sexual harassment.

Clouding matters was the fact that Banerjee’s wife was leading the human resources department at the agency. One woman, on the condition of anonymity, told Brand Equity, that it posed a dilemma and made her question whether she should take her complaint to the management at all.

Utopeia is yet to respond to ET’s emails, but Famous Innovations said: “After an inquiry through our IC and Legal Attorneys we have discovered no such complaint has been raised against Raj Kamble by any employee of Famous Innovations or any employee of his previous organisations across 20 years and 3 countries.”

Well-placed sources say that some agency employees, both women and men, have tried to appeal to clients to put pressure on agencies, especially the independent firms, to act in a more decisive fashion. Some women tried to approach one of CLA’s biggest clients, Godrej, after multiple allegations against the agency’s founder Raj Kurup surfaced two weeks ago. CLA responded, “CLA abides by all requirements of law when it comes to protecting the interests of all its employees. Gender sensitisation of employees and awareness measures are continuous and on-going processes at CLA. As a procedure any allegations on individuals are investigated thoroughly and relevant actions are taken.”

Meanwhile, Godrej chairperson Nisaba Godrej said, “ Godrej stands in solidarity with the #MeTo movement. We are deeply committed to an equitable, inclusive and gender diverse organisation and have a zero tolerance policy towards discrimination or harassment of anyone. This policy extends to all our partners and we will not do business with any organisation where it is proven that discrimination or harassment is prevalent and tolerated.”

A media agency head told Brand Equity that in most cases clients will not entirely back away from the agencies, but will insist on disciplinary action taken against individuals found guilty.

Publicis India is also under pressure from an MNC client. The client, we were told by a source close to the matter, has asked the agency to take executive creative director, Ishrath Nawaz off the account. Nawaz was accused of sexual harassment at his previous agency Ogilvy & Mather.