France's #MeToo Moment

An ad copywriter's Instagram feed has spurred French companies to finally move beyond the Mad Men era

- Rebecca Penty and David Rocks

After eight years in advertising, Anne Boistard was fed up with the toxic work culture. She had endured a boss who hung pictures of naked women in his office and would say “Is she on her period?” whenever an exhausted female employee broke down. Another boss read everyone’s Slack and Facebook messages— he’d stolen their passwords—and forced interns to watch porn, trying to kiss one of them in a bathroom. Then there was the executive who kept telling his mostly female staff that their work was garbage, leading many to quit within weeks. “The ad world in France looked like Mad Men,” Boistard says. “Powerful men who thought they were on top of the world, hitting on young female associates.”

In the autumn of 2020, when she got an offer from an ad shop in Paris, Boistard decided to ask around to see if this one was any different. She launched an anonymous Instagram account called Balance Ton Agency (“Out Your Ad Agency”) where she shared stories of abuse. Is there, she asked, anyplace female ad copywriters might feel comfortable? In two days, the account had 10,000 followers. A month later it had almost 30,000.

Boistard posted accusations of harassment at dozens of ad agencies and their clients on the Instagram feed before targeting companies in fashion, food and art. And men she called out—including the creative chief at a top company—started losing their jobs as employers investigated the claims. “We turned the power structure upside down,” says Boistard,  35. “Managers and companies are now actually afraid of us, mere employees.”