I appreciate your comment and actually believe we are on the same page. Omnicom is a slave master, and that revenue-insane model strips the joy and sense of accomplishment from agency work. Yes, young PR people are slaving away to bill clients as much as possible, and it’s not fun.
So, I ultimately blame at least the model of Omnicom for driving otherwise good agencies to the brink.

David

I know Helen Ostrowski very well, and have had the privilege of working with her for many years. Believe me, there were many more “shockingly unprofessional” comments she could have made, but chose not to.

The bean counters at Omnicom are not to blame for “much of the agency’s senior team” departing or having been “asked to leave,” rather it’s PN’s own inept senior executives who are to blame.

We can quibble back and forth on what Helen should have said or should not have said, but the fact remains, the “talented and smart young PR people who are slaving away long hours each day at Porter Novelli in order to meet their billable hour goals” are more demoralized day in and day out as a result of bad management than they are by the relatively tame comments from the departing chairman.

Helen is right, there is more to life than PR, especially the way it’s done at Porter Novelli.

P.S. PN’s clients should consider the fact that they’ve made a poor choice in agencies.