Never let it be said that I like to slag off rival publications – I don’t like it, I bloody love it. So this week, dear readers, it is the turn of The Drum to get a Busty tongue-lashing.
Now, I’m sure, many of you will remember that not long ago, it was a small provincial magazine which covered about half a dozen agencies in Scotland. Well, I say Scotland, what I mean is Edinburgh, really.
Of course, these days, it has global aspirations; it wants to play with the big boys, yet in doing so it has riled us big girls, too.
You may also recall that former editor Gordon Young was the man who thought it was a great idea to have the words fuck and shit plastered all over the front page as, in his own words, it’s the “sort of language our readers come across day-to-day”.
Now Gordon has moved over, enter Stephen Lepitak, another man who obviously has his brains in his trousers.
Anyway, for some reason young Stevie has decided to take a pop at the lovely girls at WACL in an open letter. I won’t bore you with the detail but basically he posed two questions: First, how do you foster a spirit of inclusivity when your very existence as an exclusive, elite group will have a tendency to alienate those outside it?
And second, as a single gender club, trying to effect change, how do you make your message broad enough and relevant enough to bring those outside of your particular constituency and most particularly the men of the industry along with you?
WACL president Lindsey Clay has written a pretty robust yet measured response, but Stevie has got to realise that if you upset one of the sisterhood you upset us all and even though little ol’ Busty doesn’t ply her trade in the glamorous world of advertising, I’m forced to borrow the words which his predecessor so glibly called every day language and say: “Fuck off, you’re talking shit.”
Being a bloke, he hasn’t got the faintest idea what us girls are up against. Let’s start with the basics: pay. Now, I’m sure The Drum pays all its staff the same, but I doubt it. As one editor I had the misfortune to work for once said: “I like to staff the magazine with women because they work harder than the blokes and you don’t have to pay them as much.”
Are you telling me that is not the case in most agencies?
He also said that he wouldn’t employ a woman of a certain age because they were likely to get pregnant.
Are you telling me that is not the case in most agencies?
Now, I’m no burn your bra feminist – I’d have to call out the fire brigade if I set fire to this thunderer of a contraption – but come on Stevie get a grip. If everything was hunky dory for us girls, we wouldn’t need organisations like WACL in the first place.
I bet he’s a crap shag, too.
You can also follow Busty on Twitter @BustyIdol
