Not Kean to join Saatchi heroes?

Falling on your sword, stepping out into the snowy wastes of Antarctica… and now strolling en masse out of Saatchi & Saatchi’s Charlotte Street offices: ritual suicide – all right, jacking in your over-paid job in advertising – has a long and noble history.

Saatchi joint chief executive Adam Crozier lauded his creative department’s courage after 15 were made redundant last week. “Our creatives came to us after the Cannes awards and told us they wanted to restructure their department. It was a very brave move…,” he told Marketing Week. Almost foolhardy perhaps, Adam; although the Diary would be interested to know how many went voluntarily.

Still, if courage is infectious Saatchi senior management seems to be immune: the other Adam at Saatchi, joint creative director Adam Kean, remains and will continue to work with his partner Alex Taylor.

This is despite his rather curious reported claim that the changes were part of the process of splitting up some of the most successful creative teams in the agency. The Diary suspects there are now some ex-Saatchi staff who think Kean is showing uncharacteristic modesty. He’s surely successful enough to share the pain.