Nicely put!

Actually, I'm not offended. Not in the least. Re-reading my own post I don't even sound offended much less say that I am, so I'm afriad you're projecting that, sugar. I'm disagreeing with the old school idea that advertising is a job that must be done at the sacrifice of ones own life (or any job for that matter), and that French seems to conclude that only female CD's are crap, because they breed. The assumption that all women breed is wrong.

Also, the male CD's that waltzed home to pick up the kids before us female creatives did, are by Mr French's standard "crap". (I'd have to agree actually, they were) - but see I'm just using that as an example to show how wrong it is to assume that women are crap - when his point is that people who have lives outside of advertising are crap. Both men and women can have things more important to do than pamper a client at 11:30 on a Saturday night. The gender they are born with does not decide who will find working for their agency more important than their own lives.

I've been trying to get my head around why is it that women are singled out in the "crap" comment, and as he so caringly fleshes it out, women are carers - thus they stop their careers, he concludes. Again, this isn't true in this modern world. Women who have children can - and should - take the year of their childs birth off, although may choose not to stay away for that long, or at all (nearby examples come to mind but I won't mention any names, just point at myself). This dent in their career track record is just as long and bad as those creatives that fly off to exotic journeys like India, Nepal, or an around the world trek for a 1 year sabbatical, or have taken a year off for any reason - I know several creative directors and chief executive offices who have done this. So it's not the birth-year that bothers French. Can't be, since I've seen so many men have a year off without a problem. So it must be that women pick the kids up from daycare that bothers him. This is why I pointed out that I've seen male creative directors pick the kids up from daycare. Every day! Leaving me, the AD to pick up the slack and pamper the client late Friday night.

Lets be honest here, all French is saying is that those with a life outside of advertising are crap. If you don't work 100% in advertising you're crap. When I was fresh out of school, I agreed with this sentiment whole heartily. These days I don't, as I believe balanced lives make better creatives. You may agree with his 100% idea or not, but in the end know that those 100% can be performed by both men and women.