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Saatchi and Saatchi chairman Kevin Roberts has been put on leave for saying the debate on gender bias in the industry is “all over”.

He told Business Insider he did not think the lack of women in leadership roles “is a problem” in the advertising industry.

However, Maurice Levy, the head of the advertising company’s parent group, Publicis, said it would not tolerate anyone who did not value inclusion.

Publicis said its board would decide whether to take further action.

In the interview, published on July 29, Kevin Roberts said the “debate is all over” about gender diversity in the advertising industry.

Photo Facebook

Photo Facebook

He goes on to say that rather than holding ambitions to progress into the higher echelons of management, many women – and men – simply want to be happy and “do great work”.

Kevin Roberts adds: “…they are going: <<Actually guys, you’re missing the point, you don’t understand: I’m way happier than you.>> Their ambition is not a vertical ambition, it’s this intrinsic, circular ambition to be happy.

“So they say: <<We are not judging ourselves by those standards that you idiotic dinosaur-like men judge yourself by.>> I don’t think [the lack of women in leadership roles] is a problem.

“I’m just not worried about it because they are very happy, they’re very successful, and doing great work. I can’t talk about s**ual discrimination because we’ve never had that problem, thank goodness.”

Publicis CEO Maurice Levy said: “It is for the gravity of these statements that Kevin Roberts has been asked to take a leave of absence from Publicis Groupe effective immediately.

“As a member of The Directoire, it will ultimately be the Publicis Groupe Supervisory Board’s duty to further evaluate his standing.”

Maurice Levy added: “While fostering a work environment that is inclusive of all talent is a collective responsibility, it is leadership’s job to nurture the career aspirations and goals of all our talent.

“Promoting gender equality starts at the top and the Groupe will not tolerate anyone speaking for our organization who does not value the importance of inclusion.”

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Two of the world’s biggest advertising companies – Publicis and Omnicom – have called off their planned merger.

The merger, announced last year, would have created the world’s biggest ad company worth $35.1 billion.

Publicis and Omnicom said they called off the deal as there were challenges that “remained to be overcome” and the slow pace of progress was creating uncertainty that would be “detrimental” to both of them.

They agreed to terminate the proposed deal with no break-up fee.

Last July, Omnicom’s chief executive John Wren was pictured signing the deal on the roof of the Paris headquarters of Publicis with its CEO Maurice Levy.

Last July, Omnicom's chief executive John Wren was pictured signing the deal on the roof of the Paris headquarters of Publicis with its CEO Maurice Levy

Last July, Omnicom’s chief executive John Wren was pictured signing the deal on the roof of the Paris headquarters of Publicis with its CEO Maurice Levy

“The challenges that still remained to be overcome, in addition to the slow pace of progress, created a level of uncertainty detrimental to the interests of both groups and their employees, clients and shareholders,” the two chief executives said in a joint statement released on Friday.

“We have thus jointly decided to proceed along our independent paths,” they said.

The advertising industry has seen big changes is recent years and is now having to adapt to the growth of social media platforms such as Facebook.

The proposed merger was expected to help the two companies respond to these changes.

Publicis and Omnicom had said that the deal would help them make savings of around $500 million through pooling their resources, and also give them access to a wider range of clients.

Some analysts had also suggested that they might be able to negotiate better contracts, not least because the merger would have made them the biggest operator in the sector.

However, others had warned that the merger would create a conflict of interest between clients of the two companies – as they represented rival firms in many sectors.

Publicis and Omnicom said they would continue to “remain competitors, but maintain a great respect for one another.”

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