Age discrimination in ad land: Agencies pushing out older execs
September 4th, 2008
One more bit of evidence that media and advertisers don’t value marketing to older audiences comes from Adweek magazine, which reports that older staffers at agencies are feeling the sting of age discrimination:
Earlier this month, a judge set a December trial date for a $30 million age-discrimination suit by a Universal McCann media exec, George Hayes, against the agency and its corporate parent, Interpublic Group. Hayes says he was fired by a younger boss who believed young people at the agency “got it” when it came to new media in a way that older staffers did not. In addition, Hayes claims, his former boss viewed “age and experience as a hindrance, rather than a benefit.”
The two sides seem ready to go public with the private concerns of a generation of industry execs fearing displacement at a time they should be in their peak earning years.
Valid or not, the contentions of Hayes — a former evp, client services let go at age 53 — ring true for a large number of other executives on the street who are arguing their relevance.
On the client site, Adweek notes that chief marketing officers are getting younger all the time, and that this may be driving the move by agencies to the age cleansing apparently under way. The article’s worth reading, as it offers an insight into the mindset of the advertising business.
