Ad agencies’ anonymous #MeToo moment
The advertising industry, expert in the art of attention getting, has found itself riveted in recent months by an anonymously run Instagram account dedicated to exposing sexual harassment on Madison Avenue.
The account, @DietMadison Ave, is advertising’s visual version of the Google spreadsheet that circulated last fall with the names of men in the media industry who had been accused of sexually inappropriate behavior.
Created in October, the account has more than 19,000 followers and says it is run by 17 people. It drew a surge of interest after disappearing briefly last Monday, just as a group of women in advertising wrote an open letter condemning the account’s “bullying tactics.”
The group behind @Diet MadisonAve also has a smaller Twitter account, where it said Monday that it believed its Instagram page had either been hacked or taken down after people complained to Instagram about it. An Instagram spokeswoman said the company “did not disable the account,” which was back online by early evening. It is still not clear what caused its temporary disappearance.
The account, recently made visible to anyone rather than just its followers, has garnered many fans, especially among younger people in the industry who see it as a vehicle for exposing men who have escaped consequences for their misdeeds. Others feel it has led to trial-by-strangers on social media.
“It’s one of the moments where everyone takes an inventory, both individuals and agencies,” said Kat Gordon, the founder of the 3% Movement, which promotes the role of women in creative leadership at advertising companies. Gordon said she is conflicted about the Instagram account’s approach, but said she understands the frustration of women “who didn’t feel like they had justice.”
“I’m sad that they exist, but I think the fact they exist is emblematic of something that’s really broken,” she said of @DietMadisonAve. “Sometimes you need a grenade.”
The account has published names of alleged harassers along with details of what they’ve been accused of through Instagram Stories that disappear after 24 hours and often consist of blocks of text against a solid background, or captions splashed onto screenshots of news articles and messages sent to the account.
An operator of the account, communicating through private messages on Instagram, said it had shared 17 names of alleged harassers and had collected an additional 158 it had not yet vetted. The person said the group vetted allegations before making them public, by verifying work histories and obtaining supporting documents like nondisclosure agreements. The sender declined to provide more specific details, citing legal reasons.
Men who have been dismissed from agencies after being accused of harassment are sometimes featured in photos with pig noses or comments like “Bro You’re Fired” superimposed over them. A photo of one female executive appeared on the account accompanied by the label “Complicit Enabler.” In one instance, the account posted the name of a man to its Instagram Stories. The next post tagged his employer and asked, “Why does he still work for you when it’s openly known that he’s a sexual predator?” It went on: “What’s it going to take? Physical assault? Oh wait ... ”
One of the operators of the account said it believed the eight men it named had been fired, including by agencies Droga5 and Wieden and Kennedy, where such exits are generally accompanied by nonspecific official statements invoking company values and guidelines.
Messages directed at the agencies and people accused of wrongdoing are often paired with phrases like, “You are on notice,” and “You had your chance to self police. And you failed.” (The account shared an observer’s recent comment comparing its tone to “Gossip Girl meets Robin Hood.”) Mixed in with the allegations are memes and other posts that celebrate diversity, feminism, female leaders in the industry and the #MeToo movement.
An operator of the account said its name was inspired by Diet Prada, an Instagram account known for calling out copying in the fashion industry that has also recently drawn attention to sexual harassment accusations in fashion.
As the account has expanded, there has been resistance. A group of women who work with agencies published a letter that criticized the account’s tone and anonymity, saying, “It is not acceptable to use an anonymous social media account to accuse people, pass judgment, and use other bullying techniques to help the victims.”
Karen McKibben, a freelance executive producer who signed the letter, said that as people report harassment allegations to the account rather than their companies, “It just becomes this trial by social media and men just don’t have a chance to respond or defend themselves.”
She added, “Because it’s done anonymously, you can’t hold anybody liable for potential slander or hold them accountable for what they’re posting because there’s no person to report to or complain to.”
The account responded on Twitter, accusing the women of causing the Instagram page shutdown and saying they had “loads of internalized misogyny” and were “trying to drum up business” by defending men. Women who had signed the letter, in turn, denied those claims and said that the account stood for “anonymous cyberbullying and unfair prosecution.”