My story began decades ago. I was working in the Chicago advertising market, when a hotel room key appeared on the table after lunch forcing a decision that is forever etched in my memory. Fast forward three decades. I resigned as chair rather than be affiliated with an ad agency that harbored a harasser.
I shared my story in an op-ed in "Campaign." It speaks to why I reached out to the women we signed the Time’s Up/Advertising manifesto and their male allies. And, why I'm writing white papers based on those interviews.
With a few decades of reflection (fear slows down processing) I realize I had once internalized the unspoken code. You don’t talk. And then I normalized the silence. I was not alone. The advertising industry too had normalized the silence. It was, and still is, complicit in the bad behavior.
Today, my work encourages bravery. Bravery on a journey toward building a better advertising industry. It is about harnessing collective wisdom. To paraphrase Time’s Up/Advertising it is about facilitating change in "the business you love to make it look more like the industry you want to lead."
Jean