If you're in management at Ogilvy... You're OK. If you're not... You're fucked!
You have to either laugh, cry, or preferably get completely shit faced when you read the piece in today's AdAge about the Ogilvy layoffs I forecast days ago. ... This is the truly pathetic bit... "The cuts, which could come as early as tomorrow, will be centralized in New York, affecting the advertising agency and possibly other marketing units under the Ogilvy family of companies, which include OgilvyOne Worldwide, Ogilvy Interactive, Ogilvy PR and OgilvyAction. Management in the upper ranks is expected to remain intact, the executives said." Did you get the bit I fucking highlighted in bold face... Management in the upper ranks is expected to remain intact!" That deserves a Homer Simpson... Well, fucking Duh! Shame on these people... Fucking shame!!! 'Cos these are the people responsible for the shit Ogilvy finds itself in at this time.
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I remember when Ogilvy was a great place to work. Now, it's like all the others... A festering pile of pus filled garbage. Welcome to Ad-Land 2008!
O&M = Grey with red carpet.
Posted by: Stokefactory | January 08, 2008 at 03:58 PM
O&M = Grey with red carpet.
Posted by: Stokefactory | January 08, 2008 at 03:59 PM
it's a sad commentary of our industry. the only recent management "by choice" resignation that i can recall was at lowe. when gmc and saab fired lowe, the ceol resigned. rarely happens. she is a class act.
Posted by: nomorebda | January 08, 2008 at 04:57 PM
"Management in the upper ranks is expected to remain intact!"
George, when I read this on the Adweek feed earlier I fucking knew you'd have a field day with it, and rightly so. The upper classes are all right Jack, the lower asses get shit on. It's tits up and no mistake. Next thing you know the management will all be awared great fat pay increases for keeping the hsip on course. No mention will be made of the poor twats that have just been thrown to the sharks, though, will it? It's all my arse, it really is. Fuck it all with bollocks.
Posted by: popgoestheweasel | January 08, 2008 at 07:28 PM
George, whatdya expect when the assholes are in charge. when bruce left and jan leith got put out to pasture, when the good suits like matt ross, peter d'annunzio left and tony wright took his brain elsewhere...there's nobody left. sad. was a good place once.
Posted by: goinplaces | January 08, 2008 at 07:59 PM
Pop and Goinplaces...
The sad thing is that this is now the norm. There have always been arseholes in this biz... But now they seem to have taken it over completely. I know I sound like an old fart. But I honestly think the biz is fucked. It won't go away. But it will be like working in a regular job, probably for minimum wage!!!
Time for a pop/cheers/George
Posted by: George Parker | January 08, 2008 at 08:34 PM
For the record, Goinplaces, most people viewed Leth being put out to pasture as a very positive development.
Posted by: Red Carpeteer | January 08, 2008 at 09:09 PM
I worked at Ogilvy and Mather New York in the seventies. It was magic! It has been slowly turning to shit ever since the "odious little shit" took control. (I heard his divorce cost GBP 30 million. IT WAS NOT ENOUGH!)
Posted by: Gerald Hatrick | January 09, 2008 at 04:15 AM
real sad thing: people that were there for decades and were into the "this is my agency" thing were let go. an admin assistant was let go (i'm sure that saved truckloads of cash and shifted the financial paradigm!)
it's up to management to see that the people under them are gainfully employed, they "lifers" shouldn't be made to pay. in almost any other business, when the folks in the big office do really badly, the board cuts them off and sends them packing, golden parachutes and all. not so in advertising.
Posted by: the lower depths | January 09, 2008 at 05:11 AM
Yeah, why get rid of one person in management whose mistakes helped mess things up when we can fire 6 account folk and 2 creative teams and make things even worse...
Posted by: Rob Mortimer | January 09, 2008 at 05:22 AM
my rule has always been, even if you sack the gaffer, doesn't change the fact that your team reamains rubbish.
Transfer windows open, bring in the new signings. I hear there is this creative Brazilian wonderkid that could do wonders. Would work well upfront with their recent South American signen.
Suren up the back lines would help as well, maybe a strong Italian fullback.
get in.
Posted by: George Best | January 09, 2008 at 06:38 AM
The reason given "by one executive" for the layoffs is stated as such: "primarily because the nature of the business is changing." There is no mention made by the executive if he understands what the change is or how it will be addressed. Standard pap, and not very good pap at that.
It's sad that advertising isn't really a career anymore. Only for the big suits, and they usually come from other industries now. I wouldn't be surprised to see print, online and mail developed in Mumbay in the future. Most shit reads like a client brief anyway.
My suggestion to everyone just let go at O&M: cash in your rewards points, cut up your Amex and get a Visa card.
Posted by: Auntie Christ | January 09, 2008 at 07:18 AM
Let's storm the building.
Posted by: The Kaiser | January 09, 2008 at 07:39 AM
We've all known for weeks that these layoffs were coming but we all assumed that there would be some sort of thinking behind who was selected to leave - this was not the case.
Management at Ogilvy is a MESS - they have no idea what any of us do and for the past two years they have just been spinning wildly out of control and making bad decision after bad decision instead of taking the time to actually look at the problems and come up with solutions.
On Thursday we are all required to attend the Annual Meeting - at which we expect to hear news of this mythical "restructuring" which has been whispered about since early last year. I don't think anyone thinks they will have gotten it right but it won't really matter since we all know they won't be able to get it together to actually implement any significant changes.
The big news yesterday was actually the announcement of the move to 46th and 11th in 2009. There is not one employee (besides management) that thinks this is a good idea. Expect a MASS exodus before the move. Not to mention the extreme difficulty they will have recruiting good creatives - there is no way anyone worth their salt will agree to work in this neighborhood - it is a wasteland and it always will be.
Ogilvy is super fucked.
Posted by: anonymous | January 09, 2008 at 07:48 AM
Hey what's wrong with 46th and 11th? You can pick up your FedEx and UPS straight from the depot - till 7PM!
Posted by: j'accusi | January 09, 2008 at 08:34 AM
I get how this advertising thing works: if you don't win new business, you fire some people under you. If you do win new business, you give yourself a big bonus and then leave for a big raise at another shop.
Good work if you can get it (and are heartless enough not to care about the people you trample on).
Posted by: daily biz | January 09, 2008 at 08:37 AM
Mark Knopfler's new album has a great fucking song called "Punish the Monkey." The refrain:
They're gonna punish the monkey
And let the organ-grinder go...
Posted by: Steve Feinberg | January 09, 2008 at 10:38 AM
ummm.. just have to say it. Peter Du-Lunch-eo?? you have to be kidding. lots wrong at ogilvy, but peter leaving isn't one of them.
Posted by: nope | January 09, 2008 at 11:30 AM
"nope"
About Peter Du-Lunch-eo... He did join the super management team at Draft/FCB. Probably lunches regularly with Hughie, Dewey & Louie!
Cheers/George
Posted by: George Parker | January 10, 2008 at 08:10 AM
Sources say that Peter has become nothing more than a political animal at Draft/FCB...and yes, that would mean he's sucking up to Hughie, Dewey and Louie...he's managing to navigate those treacherous waters of fear...rumor has it that the overall plan is to get rid of EVERYONE from the FCB side....and it's been said that there are more firings to come...meanwhile, how's your "personal gym", Laurence?? Is Peter allowed to share it with you or is only Stephen Kinder allowed access??
Posted by: LAM | January 11, 2008 at 07:34 AM
In the ultimate dose of irony, a week after laying off 10% of its workforce, Ogilvy launched a website to help marketers (read: clients) manage through the recession. In truth, such a website is actually a pretty good idea, but so far it's an epic fail...
http://www.thedailyanchor.com/2009/01/21/ogilvy-launches-website-to-help-marketers-manage-through-the-recession/
Posted by: Andrew | January 21, 2009 at 09:58 AM