Kevin Roberts says gender debate furore was ‘appalling judgement’ on his part, but remains firm his words were ‘taken out of context’
Former Saatchi and Saatchi chairman Kevin Roberts has given his first interview since stepping down in August, admitting that sexist remarks he made about women in the industry wasn't his finest hour and blaming tiredness for the outburst.
Kevin Roberts says gender debate furore was ‘appalling judgement’ on his part, but remains firm his word was ‘taken out of conte / Kevin Roberts is to leave Saatchi and Saatchi following a controversial interview he gave to Business Insider
Speaking to New Zealand broadcaster TVNZ in a “candid” interview that aired on Sunday (4 December), Roberts, who claimed the gender debate was “done” in an interview with Business Insider a few months ago, conceded: “it was not my finest three minutes.”
During the sit down, Roberts described the backlash as “tsunami like,” and noted that he had given the interview to the trade magazine following on overnight flight from New York to London after which he had four interviews back-to-back.
“I was tired, fatigued in the middle of interview number four and was not at my best,” he said.
During the original Business Insider interview Roberts was pressed on the ongoing gender debate within the ad industry, and the reporter mentioned the fact that just 11.5% of creative directors within the industry are women. He responded by saying: "Edward de Bono [the physician, psychologist, and author] once told me there is no point in being brilliant at the wrong thing — the fucking debate is all over. This is a diverse world, we are in a world where we need, like we've never needed before, integration, collaboration, connectivity, and creativity... this will be reflected in the way the Groupe is."
At the time of the scandal Publicis Groupe chief executive Maurice Lévy distanced himself from Roberts' viewpoint, as did Saatchi & Saatchi's worldwide chief executive Robert Senior who said: "Saatchi & Saatchi is, and has always been, a meritocracy. We live and die by our people, our talent, and it makes no difference to us whether that talent is male or female."
The interview effectively cost Roberts his job, forcing him to resign from the Publicis-owned agency he had worked at since 1997 and less than a year before he was due to retire. While he has admitted on Sunday that there was “no one else to blame,” for his miscommunication he said his point had been “taken out of context".
“What I meant was we should stop debating it and stop talking about numbers and start doing something about it. And I then went on to say that Saatchi and Saatchi had 65% jobs filled by women, and that our worldwide creative director was a woman,” he explained.
When asked about his current view on the matter, he said he believed the “most important thing for society is that we have leaders in the right jobs doing the right things in the right way, whether they are men or women".
He continued: “Many people today, regardless of gender – male, female, millennials in particular are saying: ‘I want a life that is much more rewarding to me than up or out, I want a life where I can make a contribution and do’. This was covered at length in the interview but didn’t get reported, so I spend a lot of time talking to young people and talking to young executives, and have never encountered this kind of furore before.”
On his resignation, he explained that he laid the blame at his own door for the situation and sought to fix it by removing himself “from the battlefield,” and leaving the companies and people that he cared about “safe”.
Roberts said he is currently consulting on dozens of business projects, telling TVNZ “It’s the new beginning. Now my calendar is my own and it’s living life more freely and more liberally.”