The Dark Side Of Publicis West

Ah Publicis West… Just what is going on over there? David Camp (pictured above), who was a marketing exec for Windows Mobile, has joined the shop to assist in growing their T-Mobile business.

Scott Foreman, Executive Business Unit Director, has been running the T-Mobile account phenomenally well for years. Evidenced by the fact the T-Mobile has been a client … FOR YEARS and holds up a lot of the financial weight over there. From what we hear, Scott is one of the few decent human beings in managment over at Publicis West, so what gives? There’s no mention of Camp reporting to Foreman, which they never forget to mention in the ad rags. Hell… we’re just looking out for the good guys.

One astute reader brought up a good question. What exactly does Randy Browning (CEO and chairman of PW) mean when he says, “It’s going to be fun to de-Microsoft him?” Everyone knows that Publicis West has a bad reputation when it comes to treating their employees like human beings especially since Kevin Kehoe was forced out. We’re not talking about the work, folks. We’re talking about inter-office life. Let’s see… there’s the sex scandals of course. There are also the comments left on message boards like this one: “As far as Publicis West, I know a guy who’s worked there for a years. Hated it then, hates it now.” Or, this one from Yelp.com: “I’ve been at positions at Publicis West for over a year. As of right now, Publicis West officially sucks!” Or - wait… this one, too: “It takes forever to promote well-deserving employees.” Screw it - just go read the long chain in the comments section of a post about Publicis NY and West here.

We’ll add the disclaimer that some people love their agency and some always hate it. You gotta look at these things over the long term, but you know… the long term doesn’t look so good for PW. As usual, we’d love to hear your thoughts.