16417: VML Definitely Defines Bad…

 

Advertising Age published a follow-up about the WPP mega-merger that blended VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson to create VML. Don’t have the time or interest to read the report—which apparently collected industry executives’ and experts’ opinions on the corporate collision—but the opening paragraph offered enough to generate color commentary:

 

WPP made big news yesterday when it announced the merger of two of its largest creative networks, VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson. The new entity, to be called VML, will begin operating in January of next year and will have 30,000 employees, making it what the holding company is calling the largest global creative agency.

 

Advertising icon Jay Chiat famously wondered, “How big can we get before we get bad?” Well, WPP already answered that question for holding companies decades ago—and now the conglomerate has put an exclamation point on the query for White advertising agencies.

 

What’s most outrageous is the hype declaring “the merger of its two largest creative networks” to erect “the largest global creative agency.” Okay, but consider how the entity adopted the name of its least creative unit—VML—and is technically comprised of dying creative shops that hooked up with data-driven dumpsters.

 

This is not as if Wieden + Kennedy teamed with Chiat\Day in their respective heydays. It’s more like a shotgun wedding between Zimmerman Advertising and Fathom Communications.

 

How big can we get before we get bad? Hey, these outhouses were bad long before they got big.

 

The Ad Age piece depicts the image above stating: VML EST. 2023. A truer announcement would’ve trumpeted, “VML—Excreted 2023.”

16416: VMLY&R+WUNDERMAN+THOMPSON = SHIT.

 

Advertising Age reported that WPP is mixing up a mega-merger, combining VMLY&R with Wunderman Thompson to create VML. The name change is reminiscent of the former DraftFCB, which also chose to lead with the masthead of its shittiest mergee.

 

The new White advertising agency network will employ over 30,000 people in 64 markets—and the freshly appointed global CEO declared there are no plans for layoffs stemming from the merger. That statement would constitute a White lie—ie, blatant bullshit—by Adland standards. After all, it’s highly likely that an enterprise boasting “deep expertise in data” has already drafted spreadsheets plotting the probable corporate casualties.

 

The move extends WPP’s commoditization of the industry, whereby agencies, services, and people are rendered generic, interchangeable, and disposable.

 

For now, VML stands for Vomit Mediocre Lunacy.

 

WPP Merges VMLY&R With Wunderman Thompson To Form VML

 

The agency network will have over 30,000 employees

 

By Brian Bonilla and Judann Pollack

 

WPP is merging two of its largest creative networks into one. VMLY&R is merging with Wunderman Thompson to form a new entity called VML. The new agency network will now have over 30,000 employees in 64 markets.

 

VML will be led by Jon Cook as global CEO and Mel Edwards as global president. Cook previously served as CEO of VMLY&R and Edwards was global CEO of Wunderman Thompson.

 

Cook told Ad Age that the combination of the two agencies will create a stronger offering in commerce, loyalty and technology with creativity at the forefront to better compete with consultancies and other agencies. He said the merger made sense given that the shops share 80% of their respective clients, including Ford, Microsoft, Dell, Colgate-Palmolive, Nestlé and Coca-Cola Co.

 

Some other key clients for Wunderman Thompson include Shell, Unilever, the U.S. Marine Corps and Lenovo. Also among VMLY&R’s major clients are Wendy’s and the U.S. Navy.

 

There are no plans for layoffs as a result of the merger, Cook said, but that the new entity will be “doubling down” in some areas and “doing less” in some areas.

 

Debbi Vandeven, previously the global chief creative officer of VMLY&R, will take on the role of global chief creative officer of VML. VMLY&R’s Global President, Eric Campbell will now serve as global chief client officer of VML.

 

Juan Pablo Jurado, formerly the Latin America CEO of Wunderman Thompson, will become Latin America CEO of VML; Ewen Sturgeon, previously CEO of Europe, the Middle East and Africa for Wunderman Thompson, will become the EMEA CEO of VML. Yi-Chung Tay, who is the Asia CEO for VMLY&R, and Wunderman Thompson’s Asia Pacific CEO Audrey Kuah will serve as co-CEOS of VML’s Asia Pacific region.

 

The new entity will be operational on Jan. 1, 2024.

 

The mergers of WPP agencies began five years ago as a push by the holding company to combine creative agencies with more digitally focused shops. In 2018, Young & Rubicam merged with VML to form VMLY&R. In the same year, J. Walter Thompson merged with digital agency Wunderman.

 

“Scale matters in today’s world as AI and technology transform marketing and global clients look to simplify their relationships,” WPP CEO Mark Read said in a statement. “VML will combine world-class creativity with deep expertise in data, marketing technology and platforms to deliver competitive advantage for ambitious brands. It’s another important step forward for WPP as we continue to reshape our offer for the future, simplify our business and unlock further benefits of scale.”

 

“We come to market as one,” said Cook. “It’s a simpler proposition for clients.”

 

VMLY&R was the smaller of the two networks, having roughly 13,000 employees while Wunderman Thompson has roughly 17,000 employees, according to Cook.

 

With the merger, two of the oldest and most historic ad agencies in the industry, Y&R and J. Walter Thompson, will effectively no longer have their names on the door of an ad firm.

 

Instead it is VML, a relative newcomer formed 30 years ago, that carries the name. Cook, who has been with the Kansas City, Missouri-born agency for 27 of those years, was named CEO of VML in 2010.

 

When asked why the VML name was chosen to lead the new entity, Cook said there was a responsibility to “carry a lot of the heritage and be respectful” of Wunderman Thompson, but it was also the chance “to be something new.” He called it “an open pathway to the future and the creative and technology heritage carried with it.”

 

Cook acknowledged that the VMLY&R acronym has long been the butt of jokes due to its mouthful of initials, and said, “We have a sense of humor, but can take only so many jokes. This is much easier to say.”

16177: Advertising Age A-List, AI & A-Holes.

The Advertising Age 2023 Agency A-List included Wunderman Thompson with a headline that read: How Wunderman Thompson Is Using AI To Program Its Future. Based on the accompanying photo depicted above, perhaps the White advertising agency will eventually introduce the first AI-generated Black employee.

15928: Wunderman Thompson India Sells Shower Gel In Dirty Style.

 

Wunderman Thompson India shat out this Yardley Floral Essence Shower Gel commercial, which is creepy in its leering camerawork and light-skinned casting. The responsible creative team should be sent to the showers.

 

15797: CSI—Wunderman Thompson Health And WPP.

 

Comments left at MultiCultClassics posts prompted extending the CSI—Campaign Shittiness Investigation—of We Love You to Health, the patronizing and privileged promotion pooped out by Wunderman Thompson Health and WPP.

 

Exhibit A: The We Love You to Health campaign image is a royalty-free stock photograph. Does this mean that WPP Racial Equity Program grants show unfair favoritism to audiences—i.e., do White women divertsity promotions receive grant money while Black promotions are granted crumbs?

 

But wait, it gets worse. Although the photographer is a Black woman, she hails from South Africa, meaning the pregnant models might not be American. In short, a heat shield promoting healthcare equity for U.S. Black women features foreign talent. Hey, good thing that all Black people look alike. At least to culturally clueless White people.

 

Exhibit B: A comment left at the previous post charges WPP with shady global allocation and discriminatory distribution of the $30 million earmarked for diversity do-gooding. Is the corporate investment perpetuating systemic inequality? Seems like WPP is declaring, “We Love You to Wealth.”

 

Exhibit C: The exhibits above might also explain why Wunderman Thompson Health executives gushed over how the campaign was inspired by insights, analysis and research that are common knowledge and common sense. Anyone could have gained enlightenment by simply paying minimal attention during Black History Month 2022, where the theme was Black Health and Wellness.

 

15796: WPP = White Privilege Promotions.

 

A closer examination of the Wunderman Thompson Health patronizing promotion detailed in the previous post—We Love You to Health—has inspired further diagnosis.

 

First of all, We Love You to Health does not have a corporate sponsor. Actually, it does—and that’s what makes matters peculiar. The stunt is part of an initiative dubbed Health4Equity, brought to you by WPP. Campaign stated that We Love You to Health was bankrolled by a WPP Racial Equity Program grant.

 

Based on reports, the campaign is ultimately tied to the 2020 WPP promise to invest $30 million over three years “to fund inclusion programs within the holding company and support external organizations fighting racism.” Hell, maybe it was also subsidized by the White holding company’s general diversity budget.

 

In short, Wunderman Thompson Health and WPP hatched a tax-deductible heat shield that even allows them to generate self-promotional hype—as well as submit the work for award shows. It’s a win-win scenario for White people.

 

And it’s a safe bet that any WPP Racial Equity Program grant far exceeds the crumbs that a minority-owned advertising agency might have received to execute a similar scheme.

 

For Wunderman Thompson Health and WPP, We Love You to Health professes self-centered love—and represents crafty self-interest.

 

15795: We Love You To Health. To Hiring, Not So Much.

 

Campaign republished an MM+M report spotlighting a campaign from Wunderman Thompson Health intended to promote equitable maternal care for Black women. The White advertising agency learned that Black women face greater inequities than White women from healthcare establishments and professionals, experience stereotypes of being labeled “the strong Black woman,” and benefit from community care—i.e., Wunderman Thompson recognized “the idea that ‘it takes a village,’ because it takes a village to have a baby.” Gee, what did it take to arrive at such common knowledge?

 

The campaign theme line is, “We Love You to Health.” Okay, but Wunderman Thompson doesn’t love you to hiring. To be clear, the WPP shop doesn’t love Black women enough to hire them—or their offspring—with fairness and equity.

 

‘We Love You to Health’ pushes for equitable maternal care for Black women

 

By Lecia Bushak

 

Continuing with its Health4Equity push, Wunderman Thompson Health has launched “We Love You to Health,” a campaign that aims to drive down high mortality rates among Black mothers.

 

The effort was devised with the backing of a WPP Racial Equity Program grant. Other initiatives carried out during Health4Equity’s first year addressed COVID-related health disparities, vaccination rates in the BIPOC community and early prostate cancer screening for Black men.

 

For “We Love You to Health,” the Wunderman team focused exclusively on diagnosing maternal health inequities, according to chief medical officer Dania Alarcon. It interviewed a range of Black mothers and mothers-to-be as well as doulas, nurses and midwives.

 

Some surprising findings emerged. “We found that doulas seem to be the ones that are focused on serving the needs of the mother and most in tune with the mother,” Alarcon said. Such learnings prompted the campaign team to center “We Love You to Health” around amplifying the voices, stories and experiences of Black mothers, and then attempting to connect them with doulas.

 

Black women are three to four times more likely to die in childbirth compared to white women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That significant disparity is what drove the team to expand the campaign beyond a mere awareness effort, said Wunderman Thompson Health chief creative officer Tuesday Poliak.

 

“We weren’t just going to do awareness,” she stressed. “We wanted to make sure we were coming up with a solution. We wanted to really help.”

 

The campaign also seeks to deconstruct what Poliak characterized as “the superwoman phenomenon” among Black women and the notion that they are often stereotyped as “the strong Black woman.”

 

“They are depicted as strong, self-sacrificing and free of emotion, and that they have this high tolerance to pain,” Poliak explained. “And this isn’t just a societal perception; even healthcare workers believe it. We want to rewrite that superwoman story so that Black women can finally get the respectful maternal care they deserve.”

 

“We Love You to Health” also includes a community care component.

 

“We wanted to make sure Black mothers can start to accept their care and almost return to the old way of community care — the idea that ‘it takes a village,’ because it takes a village to have a baby,” Poliak said.

 

Wunderman will judge the success of “We Love You to Health” against a range of metrics, including the number of individuals who click through to the doula site.

 

“This is phase one and our goals have always been very ambitious,” Alarcon said. “I’m so proud of our campaign and we can’t wait to see what it grows up to be.”

 

This story first appeared on MM+M.

15668: Overreaction Of The Week.

 

Adweek reported “Wunderman Thompson Unveils Its Own Metaverse At CES” with a high-tech immersive experience. Okay, but the figure of color feels like a lawn jockey.

 

15610: Wunderman Thompson EMEA DE&I WTF.

Campaign reported Wunderman Thompson named an EMEA DE&I Director. Of course they did. The new executive will work alongside the global diversity director. Is there any diversity at Wunderman Thompson besides with the diversity directors? And please, don’t ask Jo Wallace…

15588: Delayed WTF 51—Say It Ain’t So, Jo!

 

MultiCultClassics is often occupied with real work. As a result, a handful of events occur without the expected blog commentary. This limited series—Delayed WTF—seeks to make belated amends for the absence of malice.

 

After getting skewered in sensationalistic style by the Daily Mail, Wunderman Thompson Creative Director Jo Wallace sought to defend herself on Channel 4 News—yet may have talked her way into more trouble. Surely, the PR department at her White advertising agency can’t be happy to hear her protestations.

 

One of the White men who succeeded in the discrimination lawsuit against JWT had remarked, “I remember feeling like I just had a target on my back. I remember thinking, if I was a Black 24-year-old woman I’d be fine. If I had been gay, even better.”

 

Wallace shot back, “I feel sorry for him that he felt he had a target on his back and I can massively relate to that right now, given all the coverage about myself. … In terms of being better off had he been a Black young woman and a gay one at that, we just return to the statistics, because they show that if he had in fact been that, he probably would have never even been given an opportunity to begin his career.” And she went on to declare, “…in reality, the current rate of change means that women will receive equal pay in at least 100 years…”

 

Okay, but the statistics and current rate of change means whiny White women like Wallace will experience equality waaaaay before Black and Brown people.

15552: Reading Mark Read Bullshit…

 

Campaign published an interview with WPP CEO Mark Read that was likely written and/or reviewed by the White holding company’s PR and legal departments. When asked about the JWT sex discrimination lawsuit, Read coughed up the following:

 

CAMPAIGN: JWT, now part of Wunderman Thompson, lost a recent employment tribunal case which found that two male creative directors were unfairly made redundant “because of their sex”. What has WPP, the parent company, learnt from this case and do you really plan to appeal the ruling as Wunderman Thompson has said?

 

READ: The events did take place three years ago at JWT since when we’ve merged the agency and changed the leadership. I am not going to comment on the specifics of that case but I would reiterate that we seek to run our business in a way that doesn’t discriminate against anyone in the company on any basis and that would be my commitment.

 

CAMPAIGN: Jo Wallace, a creative director, who got caught up in the JWT case but was not directly involved, gave an interview to Channel 4 News after the tribunal in which she talked about how it might take 100 years to close the gender pay gap. And if we look at WPP’s published gender pay gap figures for the UK, some of them do seem to have moved very slowly (median gender pay gap was 17.5% in 2020 vs 17.6% in 2019). This is relevant because you talk in these results about how diversity, inclusion and sustainability metrics are now part of the compensation scheme for senior leaders at WPP. So how do you drive change faster?

 

READ: It’s important to me and to our board that we’re clear on our expectations for our leaders that we expect them to build an inclusive culture in their company and the make-up of our workforce should reflect the societies in which we operate.

 

I think about it in two ways: Representation – do we represent the society in which we live in terms of gender, race and other metrics? – and belonging – do the people who work for us feel they belong in our company?

 

Both representation and belonging are things that we are increasingly measuring and we seek to put them in our people’s incentive plans to remind them it’s important and to reward and motivate them to make progress. I think we have to do that and can do that without discriminating on any basis.

 

If you look at the gender composition of our workforce, we’ve made very good progress on Hampton Alexander metrics [for senior female leaders] and we have some progress on the ethnic make-up of our workforce in the US and the UK – but we recognise we’ve got more to do on both.

 

Wow, that’s some pretty slick dodging on Read’s part. To distance himself by claiming “the events did take place three years ago” is pathetic. After all, Read orchestrated the merger between JWT and Wunderman. Did he believe that combining two White advertising agencies—historically dominated by White men—would create a DE&I Nirvana?

 

Read’s dual objectives—representation and belonging—spotlight the abject failure of the CEO and board. Regarding gender and racial equality, he admits “we recognise we’ve got more to do on both”—despite having been with the corporation when it proclaimed that the staffers “represent perhaps the most diverse example of diversity of any single organisation.”

 

Most outrageous is Read’s contention that belonging—which he defined by asking, “[D]o the people who work for us feel they belong in our company?”—is being measured. It would be interesting to learn exactly how the measurement is executed and recorded.

 

The easiest thing to measure is the increasing amount of bullshit excreting from Read’s mouth.

15540: Not So Sure About This Patronizing Promotion…

 

Wunderman Thompson in the UK—working for Sure deodorants and anti-perspirants—seeks to raise awareness for people with disabilities via a print advertisement…? What about people with visual impairments? Actually, those folks are being spared experiencing the awfulness of this lame design.