Agency Brief: Sex Toys, Salaries and Science

Happy World Sleep Day! Make sure to rest up before any St. Patrick's Day festivities tomorrow, whether that's going to a parade, eating corned beef and cabbage or drinking green beer. Before we head into the weekend, let's check out some agency news. Women come first Sexual wellness brand Lion's Den hosted a ladies-only sale last week for International Women's Day, which included an original poster created by 100 percent woman-owned New York agency Fancy. The sassy poster states, "Women come first" and will be displayed in Lion's Den stores throughout March for Women's History Month. The brand believes that sexual empowerment is a major part of women's history, so it's important to keep it part of conversation and not kept to whispers. Fair pay Nearly three dozen creative agencies in the U.K. have signed the Real Living Wage Pledge, which aims to encourage diversity and ensure fair pay in the industry. The initiative is led by independent creative agencies Creature and Wieden & Kennedy London. Agencies that sign on promise to pay everyone working for them or on their premises a miniumum wage of of £10.20 per hour in London (about $14) and £8.75 elsewhere (about $12), whether they be cleaners, creatives, full-time employees or freelancers. This compares to the U.K.'s Government Living Wage of £7.50 per hour (about $10.40) for those aged 25 and over. Some of the other agencies that have signed up include Anomaly, Grey London, Saatchi & Saatchi, Momentum, VCCP, Droga5 and McCann London. Science experiment Google and Wayfarer Entertainment have launched a digital series called "Project Upgrade" that aims to empower young women to pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Women make up fewer than 23 percent of jobs in STEM. The six-episode series feature YouTube stars The Merrell Twins as they embark on adventures to develop, code and build a touchscreen digital mirror. As the backdrop for the show, Wayfarer and Google built a female hacker space at YouTube's New York headquarters, which was designed by an all-female design crew. Also, the production crew for Project Upgrade was 95 percent women. Bigger bite Doner, Smithfield Foods' creative agency of record since 2012, is getting a bigger bite of the business. The shop has handled the Smithfield brand, as well as Farmland and Gwaltney. Now, the packaged meat company has given the Detroit-based agency several more domestic brands to work on, including Nathan's Famous, Eckrich, Carando and Kretschmar. Previously, Jacobs Agency handled advertising and creative and Oodle handled social on those brands. Double it up Earlier this week, professional design association AIGA launched a movement named "Double or Nothing," aimed at doubling the number of female leaders in design. The initiative is being led by AIGA's Women Lead Initiative, with support from partners within Blue State Digital, Decker Design, IBM, Lippincott, Pentagram and Quartz. Even though more than half of designers are women, according to AIGA's latest Design Census, only four to 11 percent of women have leadership positions in the profession, depending on the business sector. The website for the effort will continually expand with resources, such as a corporate pledge for gender equity, practical toolkits, career advice and inspiring stories about female design leaders. Tweet of the week Think about your worst creative review ever -- the most meaningless project, the dumbest feedback, the unavoidable feeling that maybe your life had taken a wrong turn and you were wasting it. Now forget it. pic.twitter.com/gyQkkNmt8d Number of the week 20 – the number of new hires made by independent shop Fingerpaint since the beginning of the year. Most recently, the agency brought on Scott Watson, global chief creative officer of Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide, as the head of creative for its Conshohocken, Penn. office. Contributing: Jessica Wohl

Agency Brief: Sex Toys, Salaries and Science

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