At the Cannes Lions Creative Festival on Wednesday, women were surprised to find a sexist email in their inboxes. Attendees at the event in France received an invitation to The Wednesday Party, thrown by media group Thrillist and digital agency VaynerMedia. The invite specifically stated the party was open to “attractive females and models only,” and the email went further to include demeaning instructions as to how the level of attractiveness of potential attendees would be determined.
According to Adweek, one woman who received the invite forwarded it to ad agency leader Cindy Gallop. Gallop then shared the screenshot on Twitter, along with the statement, “It’s 2016, @vaynermedia @thrillist. This is not how you party at @cannes_lions.” AGREED.
VaynerMedia founder and CEO Gary Vaynerchuk quickly replied to Gallop via video to take full responsibility for the email, or rather, for hiring the production company responsible for sending the invite out.
@cindygallop pic.twitter.com/jfjYeoBeRi
— Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) June 22, 2016
In another video, Vaynerchuk explained that he did not have all the details, but it seems that the production company hired by VaynerMedia hired yet another company in France, who in turn hired another source that then sent out the rude invitation.
Thrillist founder and CEO Ben Lerer also addressed the situation in an internal email to his employees, which he later shared a screenshot of on Twitter. The email explains that Thrillist and VaynerMedia had to hire multiple vendors in order to hold their large-scale party, one of which likely sent out the misogynistic message. Lerer emphasizes, “No one at Thrillist (or Vayner for that matter) knew anything about what this vendor was doing and we are clearly appalled by it.” He goes on to say that they “will never be working with these promotional vendors again. Duh,” and they will change the way in which they manage vendors in order to avoid similar fiascos from occurring in the future.
@ClassicRoberto sent this to my company yesterday. https://t.co/fIKGse2Ai0
— Ben Lerer (@BenjLerer) June 23, 2016
Adweek has reported that the invitation was sent by events company iGetIn, but representatives at iGetIn have yet to issue an official response.