Saatchi Chair Kevin Roberts Destroys Career with Bad Media Interview

What happens when even world class communicators stumble in front of the media? Well, we know we can see what happened to Kevin Roberts this week. He lost his job. Kevin Roberts was the chairman of Saatchi and Saatchi, one of the most famous, if not the most famous and largest advertising conglomerates, communications conglomerates in the world. This man is fabulously successful as a communicator, presumably has made vast, vast riches in this arena. And yet it all came undone earlier this week in an interview with Business Insider, the online publication. Here's what got Mr. Roberts canned from his job. He was asked to talk about the controversy of gender diversity within the advertising world and said that just something was not, in my view, basically not something I think about. So that was one quote that got him into trouble. Then he was asked to respond to Cindy Gallup, a well known industry insider in the advertising world who's talked about the problem of sexual harassment of women in the media and advertising industry. He said, quote, I think she's got a problem, or she's got problems that are of her own making. I think she's making up a lot of the stuff to create a profile and to take applause and to get a soapbox. Well, that didn't go over well. Cindy Gallup then asked her supporters all over the world to Send tweets to Mr. Roberts saying that they're not making it up. It is a real problem. Another quote that got him into trouble. He says he doesn't spend, quote, anytime on supposed gender issues. Anytime is an absolute. That's a quote. That's a quotable element. He should have known in advance that would be quoted. Now, if you're the chairman of a huge, huge organization that's known as the leader in your industry and you're asked about a problem that is of concern to a lot, maybe half the world, say you don't spend any time now, makes it look like you're amazingly crass and uncaring. Then he's quoted as saying that it's way worse, end of quote, in sectors like financial services, where there are problems left, right and center. Now, he actually is probably right in that regard. In my experience, the finance industry is a more sexist place than the advertising world. But nobody cares what my thoughts are on that. He's head of a major ad agency and for him to say it makes it sound like, hey, I'm not going to worry about our problems because I can point fingers to somebody who's worse. It makes him seem incredibly crass and uncaring. Here's where he further gets himself into trouble. He's trying to make a point that young people in general, women in particular, don't necessarily put all their self esteem in titles and in managing more people, they want to do good work. That in itself is not necessarily a sexist statement or anything most rational people would disagree with. But then he goes on to say, I don't think the lack of women in leadership roles is a problem. I'm just not worried about it because they're very happy, they're very successful and doing great work. I can't talk about sexual discrimination because we've never had that problem. Thank goodness. It's a bit rich for someone who's head of an organization with thousands and thousands and thousands of employees all over the world to say that no woman has ever felt like there's been gender discrimination. That's a bit rich. So here's what happened. World class communicator, this story hit and it was a relatively short time later when he was put on leave. And then a short announcement after that saying he was resigning, gone, career over. What's the real lesson here, folks? Does it matter how respected you are, how high a profile you have, how successful, how many millions you've made? Even if it's in the communications business? If you don't take every interview seriously, any interview could destroy your career. The stakes are much higher when you're a part of a huge, huge international organization, part of a publicly traded company. You have stockholders, shareholders, vendors, thousands of employees who can easily be upset. Is the answer to not do interviews? No. The answer is to give thought, real thought to your messages and to understand what's quotable and what isn't quotable and to actually rehearse. Now, Mr. Roberts is not a client of mine, so I can't speak for him, but I would have to assume there's no way he rehearsed interview like that. It just goes to show you can be 10 years old never having done an interview in your life and do a great job. If you prepare, you can be 65 years old, have made tens of millions of dollars as a professional communicator. But if you don't prepare and you have bad sound bites off message, you can destroy your career.