Thrillist and VaynerMedia Under Fire After PR Firm Seeks ‘Attractive Females and Models Only’ For Party
It would not be surprising to attend an advertising party at the annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in France and find a room full of beautiful people. But it’s another thing altogether to receive a promotional email for that party explicitly phrased like frat bro locker room talk.
An event called “The Wednesday Party” cosponsored by VaynerMedia and Thrillist is drawing widespread criticism for an email that went out last night to hopeful attendees asking for, “attractive females and models only.” It was first brought to attention by ad consultant Cindy Gallop, who screenshotted the email and published it to Twitter:
It’s 2016, @vaynermedia @thrillist. This is not how you party at @cannes_lions. #canneslions #changetheratio pic.twitter.com/jF50tdPe0p
— Cindy Gallop (@cindygallop) June 22, 2016
The note read in part that females interested in attending the swanky affair can send, “recent untouched photos” for each additional female looking to go as well. How reasonable.
Gallop called out Thrilllist and VaynerMedia directly, making reference to her longtime #changetheratio advocacy movement about women in the workplace. The brand maker and TED talk presenter received a personalized video from Gary Vaynerchuk in which the CEO and founder of VaynerMedia slammed the publicity email, saying, “I’m mortified.”
@cindygallop pic.twitter.com/jfjYeoBeRi
— Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) June 22, 2016
“Any production teams or people you work with you hire at your fault, so I’m really upset,” he said to Gallop. The promoters of the event are apparently a third-party group not directly affiliated with Vayner or Thrillist. But Ben Lerer of Thrilllist was a bit less apologetic, tweeting “guys this is promoter spam. Would appreciate a little more credit.”
Others took to Twitter to respond directly to Gallop’s post:
@cindygallop That’s pathetic.
— Ryan Wallman (@Dr_Draper) June 22, 2016
@cindygallop Worked in the same building as The Wednesday Group. I am not at all surprised by this…
— Thomorrow Wong (@7homwon6) June 22, 2016
@cindygallop @tomfgoodwin @VaynerMedia @Thrillist @Cannes_Lions shameful, pathetic. embarrassing.
— sam marcus (@runsammrun) June 22, 2016
@cindygallop @VaynerMedia @Thrillist @Cannes_Lions what the actual fuck!!
— Emily O’Shannessy (@MimmiMayhem) June 22, 2016
@cindygallop @cannes_lions Is this real? Absolutely unbelievable @vaynermedia @thrillist should be banned from future events.
— Sam Golden ★ (@GoldenGatsby) June 22, 2016
The phone number at the bottom of the email redirects to a TicketMaster affiliate. Gary Vaynerchuk told Mediaite directly this morning that they hired a third-party French production company for the event who was local to Cannes, and that the email came from, “some promotion guy,” unaffiliated with either of the media giants. “It sucks,” Vaynerchuk said, who noted that the third-party group was immediately cornered, though the CEO took accountability for the flap. The party is still scheduled to go on tonight without the promotional group’s originally described entrance requirements.
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J.D. Durkin (@jiveDurkey) is an editorial producer and columnist at Mediaite.
