Interpublic Files Suit Against Frank Lowe, Pointlessness Ensues

It's sort of pointless for an agency to take legal action against a former employee if they end up going to another agency or starting their own agency and a few clients and former employees follow. First, no one forces an employee or a client to shift from the previous agency to the new agency. Agency people are big enough to make that decision on their own. Second, once a client makes the decision to leave, it's not like legal action is going to make them go back. And when the agency decides to somehow legally force an employee to stay when they've decided to leave and join the new agency, that's kind of pointless too. Short of shackles and a police escort, if someone doesn't want to show up for work, there just not going to.

We don't pretend to know all the details behind Frank Lowe's sale of his agency to Interpublic in 1990, his retirement in 2003 and his emergence from retirement last December to launch an agency in London but it would seem if the guy wanted to come back to the ad industry after a few years off, he'd be welcomed rather than being sued by his former agency. These lawsuit always revolve around speaking for former employees, contacts and clients but asking a man like Frank Lowe not to talk to his contacts is like telling him he can't talk to a single soul in the ad business. We're sure he'll do fine even as the legal eagles flap their jaws for a while in a pointless effort to control people's lives.

Written by Steve Hall    Comments (2)     File: Agencies, Opinion, Policy     Jan-13-06