ONE of the most celebrated executives in the advertising industry has offered to resign after reportedly describing women creative directors as “crap” who would inevitably “wimp out and go suckle something”.

Neil French, whose work for clients such as Chivas Regal is often used for case studies, is expected to leave WPP after creating a storm over his views on why so few women break into the top ranks of advertising.

Mr French denies the comments attributed to him at a private dinner. But a spokeswoman for WPP, the world’s second-largest advertising group, said yesterday: “Neil has offered to resign following remarks made last week in Toronto.” She declined to elaborate.

Nancy Vonk, a senior WPP executive in Toronto who was present at the dinner, responded to Mr French’s remarks through her website, saying that she was “still partially paralysed” by his comments.

“What struck me so hard as he described a group that will inevitably wimp out and ‘go suckle something’ after their short stint in advertising was that in his honest opinion he was voicing the inner thoughts of legions of men in the senior ranks of our business, ” Ms Vonk, the co-chief creative officer of Ogilvy in Toronto, said.

She added: “Neil did us the favour of voicing a widely held view, albeit an extreme version. It’s an opportunity for us all — men, too — to confront something every bit as wrong and unacceptable as racism. Replace every comment Neil made about women with the word ‘black’ and take my point.”

The Singapore-based Mr French, who is nicknamed the Godfather, is said to have told the dinner: “Women don’t make it to the top because they don’t deserve to. They’re crap.”

It was unclear whether Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of WPP, had accepted Mr French’s resignation. Sir Martin was unavailable for comment.

Last night Mr French told The Times: “I’m anti-racism, anti-sexism and everything else.”

He added: “What I did say was to be a creative director requires 100 per cent commitment. People who have babies to look after can’t do that.” Asked if he had any regrets about the controversial speech, he said: “Absolutely not”.

He did admit to putting Sir Martin in “a terribly invidious position by people giving him an earache about this. I told him, ‘I’ll save you the trouble, I’ll resign’.”

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Over the Wall
• Why Africa welcomes the ‘new colonialism’
• Which will come out on top: paper or gold?