By A Correspondent

It was a communique announcing the exit of Digitas CEO Amaresh Godbole, and we saw this para at the end of the release and thought it must be pulled out for special attention. It carries a quote by Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Groupe South Asian on “the recent exits”.

Now there have been murmurs about some senior executives quitting the Publicis Communications part of the Publicis Groupe after the dramatic exit of former CEO Saurabh Varma.

Varma has since announced that he will be venturing on his own. Independently, we have heard of a few messages sent to a few advertisers of the setting up of a new advertising agency with some honchos of an advertising network and that they (the advertisers) should consider moving their business to this new agency. We haven’t seen the messages ourselves but suffice to say that we have had very senior industry folk telling us about it.

So here’s what Acharya has said in the press release: “There is a regular churn which is there in all organisations as talent seeks newer experiences – we have seen enough cases even in recent times where people move from advertising to start-ups, from media to marketing, from broadcasting to platform companies and such. And some of course to competition. That’s the nature of the market today. It’s unfortunate that some sections of media are trying to sensationalise routine moves. We continue to do great work, stay focussed, deliver on all fronts.”

Sections of the media sensationalising? Hmm. It’s not a sweeping statement on all media, but we think it’s incorrect to damn the media – section or otherwise – in one brush and in an official statement. The Publicis Groupe should know that if the media – MxMIndia included – had chosen to truly sensationalise developments in the conglomerate, it could have. Perhaps the ‘Groupe’ should speak up on the various allegations that are floating around in the marketplace. We are surprised that the Publicis Groupe – which has a leading communications agency like MSLGroup as its part and some seasoned hands on its rolls – could go on record damning “some sections” of the media.