Marissa Mayer and Vogue – appropriate or not?

Crissy Lintner

The debate continues on whether Marissa Mayer’s controversial photo in Vogue is or is not business faux pas. Here’s the response from Crissy Lintner, managing director for our Dallas division.

Crissy’s Take:

Does Marissa Mayer have a lot to prove? You bet she does. But what caused the hullabaloo about her Vogue article? It wasn’t the content – it was the photos and the fact that a high-level CEO, who is female, was posing in a not-so-stodgy sort of way for a photo spread in Vogue.

My question: If Richard Branson had been featured in a Time photo chronology, for example, with a photo teaser “Hard Knock Life” and a shot of him in the water surrounded by bikini-clad models, would there have been such a loud fuss? I doubt it. In fact, that

Photo: Torsten Blackwood/AFP/Getty

actually happened while Branson was promoting the maiden flight of his flagship airline, Virgin Atlantic, from London to Sydney. However, Mayer, as a woman in a high-level, executive position in a male-dominated tech industry, was blasted – not for the content, but for the photo. Her photo was incredibly conservative and tasteful when compared to Branson’s.

The article itself, focusing on office life, motherhood and what it takes to be a CEO is what any good feature should be for a lifestyle/fashion magazine. It’s not going to be a number-crunching outlook for business growth at Yahoo. And the result is a good example of diverse pitching opportunities that allow PR professionals to highlight other sides of high-level executives, like Marissa Mayer. The photos fit what is expected from the publication – high-end, luxurious, fashion-forward. The subject just happens to be a pretty, young, blonde, female CEO.

To Courtney’s point, revenues at Yahoo have been falling – there’s no doubt there. But a report last week showed that Yahoo was the most popular website last month with 196.6 million monthly unique views – beating out Google, Microsoft and Facebook. Google, in comparison, hit only 192.3 million uniques. Many analysts in the industry believe this to be the first of a major boost for Mayer and Yahoo, given their focus on mobile sites and purchase of the blogging site Tumblr. 

Photo: Mikael Jansson/Vogue

So, while she may still have much to prove and her initial decisions (not to mention maternity leave in the first year of her job there) were a bit non-traditional, it looks like Mayer’s efforts are starting to pay off. To me, a sexy photo spread is not a sign that Mayer is resorting to the “ways of old,” when women were thought only to be good for looks and not fit to lead a multi-billion dollar business – or were promoted to those types of positions by other means. Instead, I find the Vogue spread to be one that embraces the power that a female CEO can bring and a little bit of PR ingenuity to build buzz and interest in Yahoo. After all, isn’t the goal of any editorial content to create buzz and awareness about a person, product or company? I think this photo spread accomplished just that. 

Marissa Mayer and Vogue – appropriate or not?

Courtney Ellett

Marissa Mayer made headlines last week when announcements came about her sexy Vogue photo spread and article. Across the PR industry, experts were weighing in, and at Obsidian, opinions vary. Today and tomorrow, we’ll share two opposing viewpoints from our firm. The first comes from Courtney Ellett, owner of Obsidian, and second comes from Crissy Lintner, managing director in Dallas.
 
Courtney’s Take:
We were both born in May 1975, and she is 20 days my junior. Maybe that’s why I paid a good deal of attention to the news in July 2012 when Marissa Mayer was appointed president and CEO of Yahoo.
 

Photo: Mikael Jansson/Vogue

Sure, lots of people paid attention to this news, but I took it to heart as a 30-something female business owner. And I’ve paid close attention to news related to her ever since (something I don’t necessarily do with personnel changes at big tech companies). So when I saw that Mayer is the subject of a glamour-shot photo in September’s Vogue – I think I found out by Twitter, by the way – an opinion immediately formed in my mind. My first thought was “What? That can’t be right.”
 
Let me say that I’m not one to immediately shout out my personal takes on strangers’ actions and choices. However, the very subject was brought up at our office because this photo is stirring up discussion in our very own industry. It seems people are torn on Mayer’s choice to do the shoot, and even in our 15-person office, we have different opinions. So here’s mine.
 
Does it bother me that Mayer is a young female CEO lying seductively on a deck chair? No, not really. Vogue is all about female beauty in all its incarnations. I don’t read Vogue religiously, and honestly, most of what I know of it comes from my viewing of every single episode of Sex and the City. And the photo is beautiful. I instantly thought – ooh, I like those shoes! That’s the woman in me. Visually captivating photo, great clothes, love the lipstick and what a lovely deck chair!
 
But the business person in me has a different take. Mayer was brought to Yahoo to turn the company around. A lot of hoopla was created because she’s a female and such a young one and had a child during her first year there. There aren’t a lot like her in Silicon Valley (to my knowledge). And so entered the opportunity to make a real impression and a real difference. Because of this, plenty of coverage has been dedicated to any move that Mayer makes at Yahoo, from the telecommuting ban to her adjustment to the company’s maternity leave policy and the spring 2013 acquisition of Tumblr.
 
Those are significant operational moves by a CEO, sure. But what about Yahoo’s financial viability? What about revenues? What about the turnaround she was brought in for? I personally hadn’t seen news on that when this photo caught my eye. But I did find the following information after a quick Wikipedia search:
 
“In July 2013, Yahoo reported a fall in revenues, but a rise in profits compared with the same period in the previous year. In her announcement, Mayer chose to ignore the continued revenue slide, and instead hailed the company's relentless release of new mobile offerings. Reaction on Wall Street was muted, with shares falling 1.7%.”
 
“Continued revenue slide.” Yeah, that stands out. Sure, it’s only been 13 months since she joined Yahoo. Turnarounds do not happen that quickly, and many things may be in the pipeline over there that are laying the right foundation for such a turnaround. But this is my point exactly. It’s SO early to really know what impact Mayer will have. So why in the world is she taking time for a Vogue spread that has nothing to do with her company’s performance?
 
So I say, “Concentrate on your job, Marissa.” This, to me, distracts from her professional mission of getting Yahoo on the right track. To me, this is another example of someone being known as a CEO celebrity and not a great CEO (she may be, but I don’t know and only time will tell).
 
There are people known for their career results, and others are known for the news they make. I liken this to the many young folks in Hollywood who are famous for just being famous (I’m sure you know who I’m talking about). Mayer hasn’t proven herself (to the laypeople of the world just yet). When she does, maybe I’ll have a different opinion when she does photo shoots like this. 

I Wrote This Blog Post About Telecommuting While I Was Telecommuting

Erinn Figg

Lately, I’ve been wading through a sea of articles on the pros and cons of telecommuting. They seem to be everywhere — on industry news sites, on mainstream news sites, bouncing around various social media outlets. Everyone’s got something to say about the joys or evils of working from home. 

I guess Yahoo’s recent and widely publicized decision to end its work-from-home policy has bumped this topic up on the list of Things You Should Have an Opinion About, so I figured I’d throw in my two cents as well.

At Obsidian PR, we have a pretty balanced policy when it comes to telecommuting: do it when it’s necessary (when weather or illness prevents you from driving) or when it fosters more efficiency (e.g. in conjunction with a client meeting near your home).

We’ve had some intelligent discussions in the office about this topic, and I respect the prevalent opinions here. However, if I ruled the world, I’d telecommute more often. Here’s why:

1. I accomplish amazing things in my pajamas.
Please don’t read anything into this statement, but there are days when I hate wearing clothes. As proof, I have three drawers full of pajama bottoms and giant T-shirts. Sadly, this is my outfit of choice these days. (Yep, I’m single. I wonder why.) But when I’m wearing my pink drawstring pajama bottoms with garden gnomes all over them and my huge Atari T-shirt, I feel like I can conquer the world! The unfettered creativity (YES! I said, “unfettered”!) flows through my body like shimmery, liquid gold. Or maybe I’m just too lazy to get dressed. In any case, who cares? I’m not crammed into a pair of Spanx or screwing around with wayward bra straps. I’m happy. I’m comfortable. There are people out there who say the more professionally you dress for work, the more productive you’ll be. I say to those people, “Get better pajamas.”

2. My hair-from-hell is an obstacle to my efficiency.
I did the math one day. It takes about seven minutes for me to take a shower, 10 to 15 minutes to do my hair, at least five minutes to slather about 19 different youth-inducing (don’t we wish) creams on my face, 10 to 15 minutes to do my makeup (20 if the night before was rough), five more minutes to mess around with my hair again, five more minutes to mess around with my face again, and five more minutes to once again mess around with my hair. This is all precious, precious time that I could be using to get work done. When I work at home, I just throw on a pair of glasses and yank the hair up into a ponytail. Sometimes, I’ll get a little sexy and slap on some ChapStick. Of course, if you swing by my place and knock on my front door, there’s no way I’m answering it, but whatever. More work done!

3. My coffee pot.
I can drink 12 consecutive cups, and no one will judge or gape in horrified amazement.

4. The hoopty gets a rest.
I have a 1999 Toyota RAV4. It has approximately 165,000 miles on it and – besides regular oil changes, tune-ups and tire rotations – has never required extensive attention from a mechanic. (Let’s all knock on wood together now, shall we?) But it’s a bit beaten-up at this point, to put it kindly. When I’m rolling in it, I crank up the music, not because I’m cool, but because when I drive in silence I can hear the scary sounds of things creaking and rattling, like I’m dragging a bucket of bolts down the street. And because it looks a little rough around the edges, it gets no respect. People hit it in parking lots all the time and never leave notes. Women in big sunglasses and shiny BMWs cruise by it in disdain. Random neighborhood children write “WASH ME” in its dust. Haters aside, I still treat that car tenderly, like a first-born child. I have awesome memories associated with that car. I’m never selling it. When I finally move on to something else, I’ll get my RAV4 shellacked and mounted. So yeah, when I work at home, the hoopty gets some much-needed rest.

5. Gas.
I commute Downtown from Germantown, and I drive to a lot of client meetings. It costs about $40 to fill up my car, and I use about one-and-a-half tanks of gas a week. So I spend about $60 a week on gas (somewhere out there, my sixth-grade math teacher is clapping), which comes to about $240 a month (standing ovation). That’s money I could be spending on shoes. SHOES, I SAID! Somebody hold me.

6. Ch’i.
I used to be the PR director for the world-renowned health resort Canyon Ranch. Unfortunately, most people around here don’t realize it’s world-renowned, so go ahead and Google it. I’ll wait . . . OK, so anyway, if you need to pull yourself together and get your body, mind and digestive system balanced, Canyon Ranch is the destination for you. And thanks to that job, I have a deep appreciation for the Chinese concept of energy force called ch’i. As such, I’ve got everything in my room artfully placed so the ch’i not only flows, it cavorts. If you happen to be my PR client and I happen to write your news release at home, it will be touched by my magical ch’i (and possibly fingers covered with microwaved-pizza grease. But mainly ch’i).

7. My cats.
I have two of them. I rescued them from a shelter. They like to hang out with me while I work and keep an eye on what I’m doing. Occasionally, one of them will stick out a paw and try to type something. They are excellent commentators. They’re also excellent proofreaders. 

8. Memphis drivers.
I get to avoid them.  Enough said.

Erinn Figg wrote this highly caffeinated blog post in pajamas while working at home. As such, it is touched by magical ch’i and has been proofed by two cats.