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.