Left-Leaning Industry Must Listen More to Right-Wing: Ogilvy Global CEO

The left-leaning advertising industry must listen more to – versus “talk at” – the right-wing to fight division, and fulfil a commercial responsibility to clients, Ogilvy’s global CEO, Devika Bulchandani, has told Cannes delegates at the LBB Beach.

“As an industry, we're very left-leaning. But if you look at what's happening in the political world, there is a whole [movement of] right nationalism that's raising its hand and saying, 'We've been ignored. We feel a certain way',” she said.

“And that's where, to me, this is less about our political ideology, but [more] our clients', right? We have to tap into all kinds of consumers. So that's the one area where I really do worry.

“We have to have an open mind, [as] leaders of the industry, because it doesn't matter how the industry feels, how the majority of us feel. We have a business and commercial responsibility to our clients to understand everybody, and I'm not sure we're great at it.”

​Jose Miguel Sokoloff agreed, adding that the industry must ensure “the people we feel slightly uncomfortable with” still “have a seat at the table”. He referenced the campaign he created a decade ago to end a 52-year-long war in Colombia.

“I had to work with guerrillas who wanted to kidnap my kids,” explained the president and CCO of IPG’s Team Unilever, and the president of MullenLowe’s global creative council. “The first meetings were very difficult for me, and I'm sure they were horrendously difficult for them. But we could never have solved that problem [alone].”

He added, “There's a divide when I have dinner with my mother, who is a raging MAGA fan.” But as Devika noted, “You have to have that dinner.”

The example Ogilvy’s boss cited was her experience at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year. “For the first time ever, there was no comedy, there was no roast. So it was possibly the most boring White House Correspondents Dinner, but it was the most illuminating for me.

“I sat next to somebody who didn't share my ideology,” she said, “and I sat there uncomfortable, but made it a point, as uncomfortable as it was, to actually try to engage in a conversation where I was learning.

“I wasn't just talking, I was listening. And that's something in our industry. We just talk too much. We talk at people, even in the work we do; we've just got to listen more.”

Devika and Jose’s comments came while speaking on the first panel discussion at the LBB & Friends beach in Cannes, alongside Chioma Aduba, president of Droga5 New York, and Dheeraj Sinha, group CEO of FCB India and South Asia. The conversation focused on how the industry can be ‘better together’ as the world pulls apart.

^{Above [L to R]: Matt Cooper, IPG’s Jose Miguel Sokoloff, Droga5’s Chioma Aduba, FCB’s Dheeraj Sinha, and Ogilvy's Devika Bulchandani}

Chioma noted the consumer base is vast, with “different ideologies”. Agencies must reflect that, she said, in who they hire and how they think about solving business problems.

“But not just because the consumers are wanting to hear certain things, but [because] the best creative ideas have always come from when different ideas merge together and collide, and when that's not happening naturally, you have to actively try to make that happen.”

Jose noted that the way to connect with people is through craft. “Craft and beauty and aesthetics are not divisive.” The comment moved Devika, who said, “That's one of the most profound things that I've heard. Thank you.”

Jose added, “If we don't bring people from a different echo chamber into ours, our ads are going to be incredibly successful with people that we already convinced. And that's not our job. Our job is to convert new people.”

FCB’s Dheeraj was optimistic about the opportunities technology offers to do exactly that, and said he feels his agency, and the industry, is more connected globally as a result. Devika disagreed; the industry is less connected than it should be, she said, and struggles to have hard conversations.

“I think that we also have to be really honest,” she said.

“I like your optimism, but the truth of the matter is that we are getting undervalued as an industry, and if we keep avoiding that conversation, we do ourselves a disservice. I mean, that is the honest truth. Is creativity devalued? Yes, it is. It is devalued.

“We're not getting paid the way we used to get paid by our clients. I do think sometimes we show up at these panels and we want to portray the rosy picture, and we've got to talk about the truth. We don't stare it in the face.”