Chicago Sun Times advertising columnist Lewis Lazare reports that Leo Burnett svp/cd Kash Sree has departed the Wacker Avenue agency for greener pastures. Sree arrived at Burnett in 2002 from Wieden+Kennedy in Portland, Ore., where he was a key creative on the high-profile Nike account.
Lazare writes, “His departure from Burnett suggests he was unable to fully integrate himself into the highly political and complex culture in Burnett’s creative department.”
If Lazare’s assertion is correct, it saddens me, for the agency business fashions itself a meritocracy. Yet, I know, as do countless others, how far that lofty claim is from the truth.