On Kevin Roberts, gender diversity and PR

The resignation of Saatchi & Saatchi's Kevin Roberts this week following his ill-informed comments about gender diversity in the advertising industry have been big news around the world.

Roberts has been unanimously criticised and, even though he hasn't actually retracted his comments, some have nonetheless said it was wrong for him to resign. Instead, says the Telegraph, he should have remained in his role, admitted he needs help understanding the issue, and then lead the drive for greater gender balance in his industry.

Roberts' downfall has stirred debate right across the advertising-communications-creative industries, and here are a few thoughts from a public relations perspective:

1. In the world of PR, we too suffer from a lack of diversity - but in the opposite way. There's a general lack of males in agency and in-house PR roles, and this extends to PR, journalism and communications courses at our tertiary institutions.
2. Nobody doubts Roberts' comments show he is out of touch, and its amazing that his dinosaur views on gender diversity hadn't come out earlier. But where was the PR advice in all of this? I don't know the circumstances in which Roberts' conducted the interview, but any PR adviser with a few smarts would have jumped on it in a flash. At the very least, fallout could have been minimised and, at best, the whole thing could have been avoided in the first place. Isn't hindsight great?
3. The Telegraph article referred to above mentioned the huge social media storm following Roberts' remarks, with most participants calling for his head. Such pressure will force people into kneejerk reactions. I'm certainly not saying Roberts shouldn't have resigned but, as the Telegraph article asks, is his resignation really going to improve the issue at hand?

In his heyday Roberts was an inspirational thinker and leader and widely admired in New Zealand business circles. But his views haven't kept up with the times and he's been found out in a way that's tarnished his own reputation, along with those of his employer and his industry. Ouch.