{"id":34413,"date":"2020-07-23T07:15:39","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T12:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adpulp.wpengine.com\/?p=34413"},"modified":"2020-08-07T09:02:56","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T14:02:56","slug":"wiedenkennedy-isnt-used-to-vulnerability-or-criticism-but-heres-a-chance-to-learn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adpulp.com\/wiedenkennedy-isnt-used-to-vulnerability-or-criticism-but-heres-a-chance-to-learn\/","title":{"rendered":"Wieden+Kennedy Isn’t Used To Vulnerability or Criticism, But Here’s A Chance to Learn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wieden+Kennedy, the agency with 11 Agency of the Year credits to its name, laid off 11% of its global workforce due to financial impacts from the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

W+K has offices in Portland, New York, Amsterdam, Tokyo, London, Shanghai, Delhi, and Sao Paulo.<\/p>\n

Prominent W+K clients include Airbnb, Coca-Cola, Disney, Facebook, Old Spice, Ford, McDonald’s, and KFC.<\/p>\n

A Negotiated Settlement<\/h2>\n

\u201cWe negotiated this as long as we could, but W+K and COVID-19 have reached an impasse,\u201d the agency said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Negotiated? With whom? The virus?<\/em><\/p>\n

More from the statement: \u201cHow long this will last seems to be anybody\u2019s guess, so we have had to make some hard choices. We are saying goodbye to people that we love; 11% of our network. Some raised their hands to leave, helping to save the jobs of others. Some received bad news graciously. Voluntary or not, everyone was given the softest landing possible. All of them are a loss to us. Any agency that gets them is lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

There’s the old W+K arrogance again (in the last sentence, which is not needed). What if the agency “that gets them” doesn’t need another entitled person or person who has been routinely overworked?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Wieden+Kennedy said that its laid-off employees are receiving four months\u2019 severance pay, on average, which is a soft landing, but even soft landings come to a conclusion when the money runs out. How things go for the ad workers from there will depend on a host of factors. No matter how talented a person is, the market for talent is brutal. Witness:<\/p>\n

\n

Every LinkedIn note from a recruiter reads like this to me:<\/p>\n

ACD team needed for cool pitch at cool agency for cool product. WFH. $$$. Must have experience in self-mutilation, defenestration and spontaneous immolation.#Yourchance<\/a> #opportunityawaits<\/a> #coolstuff<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 George Tannenbaum. Good thinking is good writing. (@georget20) July 23, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n