Wear the pink slip; get the pink slip

Ad Firm Behind Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney Fiasco Fires 13 Staffers After Lavish French Trip: Sources
NY Post | August 23, 2023 | Lisa Fickenscher

The California marketing firm behind Bud Light’s disastrous tie-up with Dylan Mulvaney fired more than a dozen employees – days after top brass boasted about a lavish junket to an award ceremony on the French Riviera, The Post has learned.

San Mateo-based Captiv8 — which The Post exclusively identified as the ad agency behind Anheuser-Busch’s short-lived partnership with the trans influencer — flew executives and guests on a private jet to the annual Cannes-Lions festival in June.

Captiv8 booked the private charter on a boutique French airline called La Compagnie which features 76 lay-flat seats and a “bespoke plane experience,” according to a press release about the trip.

Upon returning from the marketing industry’s Oscars-like event, CEO Krishna Subramanian offered a recap of their trip during a company-wide Zoom meeting on July 3, multiple sources told The Post.

The presentation allegedly included photos of the giddy travelers aboard the luxury jet, as well as the yachts, pool parties and villas they visited in the south of France.

Two days later, however, the “tone-deaf” Subramanian handed out pink slips to 13 workers, about 5% of Captiv8’s more than 200 employees, a Captiv8 employee told The Post.

“They said they were investing in the future of the company and building relationships,” one current worker who survived the purge told The Post, adding, “Maybe they could have saved jobs instead of blowing all of this money” in Cannes.

After the layoffs, Subramanian told remaining staffers on another company-wide Zoom call that the ad agency was “examining budgets” and “evaluating finances,” according to sources.

If (s)he invites you to a company “retreat” at Disneyworld, politely decline — while the ad agency does the same.