The ongoing #MeToo and #TimesUp movement have brought to light the issue of many women from the Media & Advertising fraternity facing the harassment and sexism over the years that is in a way driving the organizations to react swiftly with zero tolerance. It gives a strong signal to the fraternity that times has come to end demented privilege towards a section of people.
Big Names surfacing from #MeToo
During the past two days names of industry biggies has from leading agencies has popped-up creating huge embracement to the Industry and organizations such as AIB, Publicis, 22 feet Tribal WW, Boldklin and Creativeland Asia with big names like Ishrath Nawaz, Brijesh Jocob, Abhishek Agarwal, Raj Kurup, Tanmay Bhat and Gursimran Khamba from the Indian Media and Advertising industry surfacing with allegations of harassment.
In Media and Entertainment segment, the #MeToo and #TimesUp wave have also revealed allegations against Utsav Chakraborty, K.R. Sreenivas, Gautam Adhikari, Zulfi Syed, Chetan Bhagat etc.
Prompt action from the Industry:
Star India has resolved to stand with women around the country in drawing the line on any behaviour that violates human dignity or their ability to pursue their dreams with freedom. Reflecting this sentiment in action “Hotstar announced the cancellation of the third season of On Air with AIB, given the developments around the group, involving its CEO and Co-founder.
In its statement Star India has stated “Over the last few days, we have heard gut-wrenching stories of abuse from women across the country. At Star, we are taking this moment to reaffirm our commitment to the central values of our company. Yesterday, our streaming platform Hotstar announced the cancellation of the third season of On Air with AIB. We wanted to draw the line on anything that ran counter to our norms and values.”
Publicis and DDB Mudra orders investigation:
Publicis and DDB Mudra had issued a statement of initiating an appropriate investigation, AIB has gone ahead and distanced its founding member and CEO Tanmay Bhat and asked Gursimran Khamba to go on a temporary leave.
The statement issued by DDB Mudra stated, “On Sunday, an accusation of behaviors and actions that violate our code of conduct was levied against an individual at our agency, anonymously via a public post on a social media site. The accusation stands in stark contrast to our values and standards at 22feet Tribal Worldwide and at the DDB Mudra Group more broadly, where it is our primary responsibility and commitment to providing our associates with a safe, fair and dignified workplace”.
“Within hours of being notified yesterday, we initiated the process of verifying the allegations and getting them investigated.”
Publicis Spokesperson said, “We have taken note of the incidences reported in the tweets. We are deeply concerned by the seriousness of these allegations and are investigating them on priority. We will ascertain facts of the matter and see that the outcome is fair and just, and appropriate actions are taken as per the Company’s policy. We re-iterate that Publicis India has a zero-tolerance policy towards any type of workplace misconduct or abuse of power or harassment.”
According to the Statement by AIB HR Head, Vidhi Jotwani, Bhat will not be involved in the day-to-day functioning of the company. “We have been closely monitoring the sequence of events on social media around the allegations against AIB and also against our co-founder and CEO, Tanmay Bhat. We cannot overlook Tanmay’s role and in light of this, he will be stepping away from his association with AIB until further notice,”
Reaction from the section of the industry looks encouraging even though more steps in this direction needs to be initiated in a the way that encourages more people to speak-up against any form of harassments.
