The Collective, a consortium of senior women across Indian advertising, media, and design, that got together in 2018 with an objective of facilitating safe and equitable work environments and amplifying the voices of women in the industry, has issued a statement following the completion of the Omnicom-IPG merger.

The statement follows the announcement of the leadership team. While official communication from Omnicom India is awaited, based on publicly available information, among the 14 leaders revealed so far, only one, Chandni Shah, CEO of Kinnect, is a woman.

The Collective claimed that while the industry faces the challenge of combating AI, what it should also look to solve the systematic, deep-rooted culture that grooms few women to take on leadership roles.

Here is the complete statement signed by The Collective:

“While agency mergers are a sign of the times, what is more telling is the lack of women leaders at the helm. This is a merger of seven agencies with remarkable talent and an impressive roster of clients. What is galling is that not a single one of them thought any woman leader is worthy of the new appointments. The industry challenge is not just AI but a systematic, deep-rooted culture that grooms few women to take on leadership roles. As role models of the most powerful holding company today, all we see is a gender submission that is subservient and, quite honestly, appalling. More power to Chandni Shah; we couldn’t be prouder. However, what we are calling out is a precedent that further cements a bro-code that is detrimental to young women who join the industry, and this needs to change."

The Collective consists of:

• Aazmeen Kasad
• Ashwini Deshpande
• Deepa Geetakrishnan
• Deepa Shankar
• Preeti Vyas Gianetti
• Sakshi Chaudhary
• Swati Bhattacharya
• Tista Sen