The Diet Madison Avenue account has drawn broad attention in the
advertising industry for naming men it claims have engaged in
sexual harassment. After their names were posted on the account,
big-name creatives including Droga5 chief creative officer Ted Royer;
Martin Agency Chief Creative Officer Joe Alexander; and former
Wieden & Kennedy London chief strategy
officer Paul Colman were separated from their agencies.
The lawsuit says the plaintiff believes the DMA account is run
by at least 17 individuals "with assistance from at least another
42 individuals." The suit lists Instagram's privacy policy, which
states the platform may access, preserve and share a user's
information in response to a legal request or when Instagram
believes that is necessary to detect, prevent and address fraud and
other illegal activity.
The suit says that in January Diet Madison Avenue published
statements about Watson, claiming he was a sexual harasser. On
February 2, the suit says that as a "direct result" of what it
calls "false statements, pressure and interference," Watson was
wrongfully terminated by the MDC-owned agency "despite being an
exemplary performer during his entire tenure with the agency."
The suit says that the Diet Madison Avenue account has not
identified any of the women who it claims were harassed by him, or
"provided even a scintilla of evidence or proof supporting any
allegations of harassment or other 'predatory' misconduct.'"
Watson "has had his life destroyed wholly on the basis of
defendants' patently false statements," the suit says. It adds that
Watson has not been able to find work in the industry since his
termination, recently losing a "highly lucrative freelance
engagement solely because of the damage to his reputation and/or
the real fear of retaliation by DMA or its supporters."
Watson
joined CP&B's Boulder office in 2014 as its chief creative
officer, coming from BBDO where he led Bud Light. Formerly, he was
at Goodby Silverstein & Partners in
Detroit, overseeing Chevrolet. He has also worked at other agencies
including Leonard/Monahan, Team One, Arnold and Saatchi New York.
In an open letter on his lawyer's website, Watson responded to
the allegations.
"I have never, in my 24-year career, sexually harassed anyone,"
he wrote. He likened his plight to that of Odysseus in Homer's "The
Odyssey," in which the protagonist must choose to sail between a
seven-headed monster or a whirlpool.
"Now I am left with only two choices – staying silent or
speaking out," Watson writes. He says choice one means "Staying
silent in the face of unsubstantiated false rumors and watching as
the ship sinks under the weight of whispers" or "choosing to speak
up and risk bringing even further defamation, attack, and harm onto
myself, especially considering DMA's threats to 'take down any
challengers.'"
He continues, "Yes, I've had a one-sided trial by social media,
but now I'm looking for actual justice in a real trial by bringing
DMA into a public forum and requiring them to state their claims,
and more importantly, their supporting evidence. I'm here to tell
you they won't be able to do that. It's one thing to make reckless
and anonymous accusations. It's quite another to back them up with
evidence in a court of law."
Watson's lawyer, Michael Ayotte of the Law Offices of Michael W.
Ayotte in Hermosa Beach, California, said Watson is deferring
comment to his lawyer and his open letter.
"My client's hard-earned career and reputation have been
destroyed by Diet Madison Avenue's defamatory actions. He is
adamant that he has never sexually harassed anyone. Yet he has lost
everything without any actual allegations of misconduct being
brought against him (either named or anonymously), much less any
supporting evidence," Ayotte said in an emailed statement.
"He and I support equal rights for all and believe no one should
be subjected to sexual harassment in the workplace. However, Diet
Madison Avenue's way is not the right way, and their tactics are
doing more harm to the #me-too movement, than good," the attorney
continued. "This case is needed to shed light on the dark side of
DMA – how one man can lose everything over false and
unsupported Instagram posts."
Diet Madison Avenue told Ad Age in a message sent via Instagram
that the account has legal representation and is "wondering why
Ralph Watson isn't taking up this issue with CPB." The statement added that "it will
be fascinating to see how Instagram deals with this issue -- and
how they deal with users' privacy and freedom of speech on their
platform."
The statement adds that "ultimately we believe it's a freedom of
speech issue." Diet Madison Avenue wrote it has not engaged in any
criminal activities and has published "third-party information as
is."
MDC Partners and CP&B declined to comment. Instagram
didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.