Publicis parts ways with employee following combative tweets on coronavirus

His tweets prompted backlash from other Twitter users including Tom Morton, US chief strategy officer at R/GA, who described Goodwin's comments as "clickbait contrarianism" – leading Goodwin to accuse Morton, in angry language, of taking a moral high ground.

 

Following the controversy, Publicis parted ways with Goodwin. 

 

A spokesperson for the holding company said in a statement: “Since the beginning of this pandemic, Publicis Groupe has taken decisions and actions led by the principles of unity, empathy and humanity despite the collective hardships. These posts and exchanges by Tom Goodwin this week on social media do not meet the standard of conduct we expect of our company’s employees and were not aligned with our values. Publicis and Tom have parted ways.”

 

Goodwin was previously executive vice-president and head of innovation at Zenith. He is also a speaker, author and consultant. In 2017, he wrote in Campaign about the potential of technology to unlock growth for brands.

 

Publicis' global organic revenue dropped 13% year on year during the second quarter.