Neil French

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Neil French is a British advertising executive widely credited with bringing the creative revolution to Asia when he was associated with The Ball Partnership in Singapore. His work for Chivas Regal, Kaminomoto, and in particular the 'XO Beer' campaign for The Straits Times, is used as case studies in advertising schools around the world. He is one of the few advertising professionals to be honoured with the Clio 'Lifetime Achievement' Award

[edit] Controversy

He resigned from his position as a worldwide Creative Director at the giantWPP Group PLC,after allegedly making sexist comments to an audience in Toronto on October 6, 2005. He reportedly said that there weren't more female creative directors in advertising because after spending their time within the industry, they usually leave "to go suckle something." This made a few offended guests walk out, and provoked much online discussion. The most notorious of responses was that of Nancy Vonk, the Co-Chief Creative Director of Ogilvy Toronto, who wrote an online essay titled "Females Like Me", expressing her outrage at Neil's comments.

The comment that was made was “You can’t be a great creative director and have a baby and keep spending time off every time your kids are ill ... Everyone who doesn’t commit themselves fully to the job is crap at it.” It was not directed at women but at all people that do not commit themselves to job. The problem arose because Mr. French was speaking about why there were not more women at the top of the corporate ladder.

As a result, the WPP Group forbade him to speak at either the Creative Circle Awards ceremony on 18 November 2005 or the AdAsia'05 conference in late November. However, he still accepted the "Champion of CCA" award at the CCA ceremony.

He is the founder of the new advertising award-show, "The World Press Awards', which will be limited to advertising that appears solely in the print media. The judges will be Jeremy Craigen, of DDB, Mark Tutssel of Leo Burnett, Erik Vervroegen of TBWA, Tham Khai Meng of Ogilvy, Marcello Serpa of AlmapBBDO, and Graham Warsop of The Jupiter Drawing Room. Judging will take place in January 2007, in Singapore.

French has also briefly served as manager of the British Heavy Metal band Judas Priest.