The Neil French fiasco

By now it is all over the papers; Creative director, advertising guru, copywriting legend Neil French’s comments about how women never make it to the top in advertising or the corporate world because they are ‘crap’. It made a big scene, offended women all over the world, and in the end cost him his immediate job at Ogilvy. Of course that sentence was taken out of context, but the gist of what he was saying is that ‘anyone who does not give 100% to their occupation – at the extent of sacrificing family or time to raise kids – will never make it to the top.’ The inference was that women are more likely to make sacrifice for family than men. Interestingly enough, here at Creative Wonders, we have the opposite. Diane Lund, our CEO, founded Creative Wonders 13 years ago, and has been in the advertising game for more than 25 years. We also have senior Art Directors, Production Managers and Designers, all of whom are women. In fact, I’m the only guy here most of the time. Lucky me!

Anyway, here are a few of Neil's favourite ads: The Parker Pen Grumpy Elf and His Elfins and The Elfettes.
These are probably some of the best low-budget tv ads I have ever seen, Neil himself is doing the voice of the elf and wearing the hat.

He also has some very nice writing with The legend of Martell and the classic Chivas Regal print and Chivas Regal tv ad