Ad Agency’s Kiss Backfires

MINNEAPOLIS — An award-winning advertising agency has drawn the wrath of feminist groups and lost an $8-million client after sending a photograph of an African youth kissing a cow’s backside to a woman who called one of their ads sexist.

“My reaction was almost disbelief that in this day and age anybody could be so insensitive and so contemptuous of a member of the public,” Kay Taylor of the Minnesota Women’s Consortium said Wednesday. She said the consortium has mailed copies of the photo to other clients of Fallon McElligott, which has gained national recognition in the ad world for its often offbeat campaigns.

Agency Chairman Patrick R. Fallon has apologized, saying agency executives had “allowed our reaction to your criticism to sweep us beyond the bounds of judgment, taste and common decency,” but the incident has cost the Minneapolis-based agency its sixth-largest client.

US West, a regional telephone company, said last week that it would drop an account worth $8 million to $10 million annually.

The dispute began when Neala Schleuning, director of the Mankato Women’s Center, wrote in October to Charles S. Anderson of Duffy Design Group, a Fallon McElligott affiliate, criticizing parts of a presentation he made to a marketing conference. Schleuning also objected to a poster ad for the TV show “Dynasty” that prominently featured the phrase, “Bitch, Bitch, Bitch.”

Anderson responded with a Nov. 7 letter and the photograph.