Agency Spy

Seducing the Boys Club: Uncensored Tactics From a Woman At the Top is a new memoir written by Nina DiSesa , chairman of McCann Erickson/New York. The book is half memoir, half guidebook for ladies in the industry. DiSesa began her career in the creative department at Young & Rubicam then bounced to McCann and then JWT/Chicago and finally, back to McCann. In 1999, Nina was chosen by Fortune magazine as one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in American Business.” In 2005, she received the Matrix Award, given each year to a select group of women in communication. In 2007, she was inducted into the Hall of Fame for CEBA (Creative Excellence in Business Advertising).

Her book covers these basic points:

• Learn to appreciate men. Men like women who like them.
• Remember that women are biologically wired to succeed.
• If you want to make a name for yourself, find a mess and fix it. A secure and comfortable job only holds you back.
• Don’t assume that men never listen. They listen like a dog does.
• Don’t be a quiet achiever.
• Act brave and you will look brave.
• Screw the rules. Make up your own.

And these basic warnings for women operating within a field of men:

1. We get drunk with power;
2. We stop reading the room;
3. We become real witches;
4. We take the reins and don’t make rain; and
5. We forget that we have to be better than men.

Lewis Lazare had this impression:

“- for all DiSesa’s talk about using the feminine ploys of seduction and manipulation to claw her way up the ladder, her life in advertising, in truth, reads more like the story of how she finally morphed into one of the males she was allegedly trying to seduce and manipulate. Among other things, DiSesa became adept at yelling (literally) to be heard, and at behaving, when necessary, like a cold-blooded political animal.”

In contrast, here’s an excerpt review from Amazon:

“Men listen like dogs, and hear only what they want. I found this controversial, but when she says we only hear what we want to hear, I know exactly what she means. Women, though look beyond the content and look at body language and tonality, and pick up on nuance. She has actually trained some of these alpha males to develop some of these superior qualities.”

Whoa-ho. We’re heading out to the book store right now. We’ll let you know our own findings by end of week.