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What started as a rainy Fourth of July ended not with a fizzle, but with a fireworks-level bang when Zoe Scaman, founder of strategy studio Bodacious, published “Mad Men. Furious Women.” on her Substack.
- “The piece is about the ongoing practice and normalization of misogyny in the ad industry,” Scaman told Marketing Brew. It details anonymous stories from women who claim to have experienced misogyny at agencies, from microaggressions to sexual harassment and assault.
- Scaman told us that—as of Tuesday afternoon—the piece had amassed 54,648 views on Substack.
- As of Wednesday morning, Scaman’s tweet announcing the piece had 2,800 likes, 882 retweets, and 686 quote tweets.
Zoom out
Major industry players have responded to the piece on Twitter.
- AMV BBDO: The agency’s Twitter account replied to Scaman asking to talk about the article, and then later deleted the tweet after Scaman retweeted it with the message “Let’s hope this is a positive private conversation and that more agencies take a similar step.”
- Cindy Gallop: On July 4, the former ad agency exec and #MeToo advocate tweeted, “EVERY MAN IN THE AD INDUSTRY MUST READ THIS…everything Zoe cites is the single biggest business issue facing the ad industry,” accompanied by the link to Scaman’s article.
- Rachel Mercer: R/GA’s former VP and head of strategy retweeted the piece, saying “I’ve had countless conversations where I have to explicitly identify male colleagues and leaders as being ‘one of the good ones’, ‘not creepy’ or ‘great and supportive with women.’ I wouldn’t have to do this if this wasn’t prevalent. I wouldn’t be asked if it wasn’t an issue.”
- Nathan Young: The 600 & Rising founder tweeted that “’Mad Men. Furious Women’ is required reading for leaders in advertising, men especially,” followed by a thread of four opportunities for men in leadership.
Big picture: 60% of Madison Avenue women “either left the industry or seriously thought about doing so…during the pandemic,” per LinkedIn research shared with Marketing Week in March 2021. Sarah Benson, a former brand strategist at adam&eveDDB who told us she contributed to Scaman’s article, said she believes the misogyny highlighted in “Mad Men. Furious Women.” helped spur the exodus.