Advertising agency CEO joked about raping female employees, lawsuit alleges

A longtime employee is accusing the head of storied Madison Avenue ad agency JWT of making repeated racist and sexist remarks in a lawsuit filed in Manhattan on Thursday.

Erin Johnson, JWT's chief communication officer, is alleging that CEO Gustavo Martinez's "apparent comfort in making constant racist and sexist slurs" created a hostile work environment for female and minority employees, according to the suit.

The lawsuit, first reported by the New York Post, names JWT and its parent company WPP, the largest advertising company in the world, as defendants.

The lawsuit alleges that Martinez constantly joked about rape and at one point asked the office publicly which female staffer he should rape. Johnson also says Martinez grabbed her by the throat or neck while talking to her more than once.

According to the document, Martinez was vocal about his dislike for "black monkeys" who "don't know how to use computers" and "fucking Jews." 

He even claimed on-the-record to a reporter that he disliked his upscale Westchester, NY neighborhood because there were "too many Jews."

Martinez responded to the suit in a statement on Thursday, calling the allegations "outlandish."

“I am aware of the allegations made against me by a J. Walter Thompson employee in a suit filed in New York Federal Court. I want to assure our clients and my colleagues that there is absolutely no truth to these outlandish allegations and I am confident that this will be proven in court.”

In an article published in Campaign U.S. on Thursday, the trade publication's editor-in-chief Douglas Quenqua identifies himself as the reporter in question who was present for the "too many Jews" comment and confirms Johnson's account of the exchange.  

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Quenqua noted the advertising industry's history of racism and misogyny and said, "Gustavo Martinez, who vehemently denies the allegations, was supposed to be a step in the right direction." 

Johnson said she repeatedly complained about Martinez's behavior to the agency's head of human relations and various other executives.

WPP said in a statement that its lawyers have been looking through "previous correspondence on these matters" since Feb. 25 and have not found any evidence to substantiate the claims.

Martinez took over as CEO of JWT last year after serving for a little over a year as its global president. 

JWT, formerly known as J. Walter Thompson, is a venerated 152-year-old institution that boasts Macy's, Ford and the U.S. Marine Corps as clients.

While the advertising industry has come a long way from the casual chauvinism on display in AMC's Mad Men, women and minorities remain woefully underrepresented among its upper echelon. For instance, just 11% of all winners of industry-wide creative awards in 2014 were women — up from 4% a decade ago.

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