For the first time, the public can now see one of the incidents listed in a discrimination case against J. Walter Thompson's former CEO, Gustavo Martinez.
Filed by the agency's communications chief, Erin Johnson, the discrimination suit against Martinez had alleged that he made several inappropriate references to rape. One of Johnson's examples, from a 2015 agency event in Miami, is now posted for public viewing.
In the clip, which you can watch below, Martinez jokes about being concerned in the hotel elevator that he would be "raped...and not in the nice way."
The law firm of Vladeck, Raskin & Clark released the video after federal District Judge J. Paul Oetken released a decision Tuesday allowing it to be entered into evidence.
JWT's legal team initially argued that the release of the video would damage the agency by revealing sensitive information about its global strategy but later decided to do so in the interest of helping prove the defense's claims that none of the executives in attendance found Martinez's joke to be offensive.
Oetken determined that the video could be made public as long as the faces of other attendees were blurred to hide their identities; in the clip above, various people can be heard laughing at Martinez's joke.