Fired for Speaking the Truth

LONDON -- One of the world's most flamboyant advertising gurus has left his job after reportedly telling an audience that women made poor executives because motherhood made them "wimp out."

Marketing giant WPP Group PLC, which is based in London and New York, said Friday it had accepted the resignation of Neil French -- a one-time debt collector, trainee matador and rock-band agent who served as the group's worldwide creative director.

According to a news report, French said women did not make it to the top because "they're crap."

Nancy Vonk, a Toronto-based creative director at WPP subsidiary Ogilvy & Mather who attended the event, said French described women as "a group that will inevitably wimp out and go 'suckle something.'"

"I kind of felt that Neil was saying out loud what a lot of people were feeling," Ms. Vonk said in an interview. "It's undeniable that women aren't getting far enough in the creative part of agencies, and I thought we were looking at the reason why."

Mr. French, often called one of advertising's best copywriters, defended his remarks in an interview:

"A belligerent question deserves a belligerent answer," he said. "The answer is, They don't work hard enough. It's not a joke job. The future of the entire agency is in your hands as creative director."

Mr. French, who has been widely pilloried on the Internet for his comments said . .

"Death by blog is not really the way to go."

The Examiner, Washington, D.C., October 24, 2005.