McCann Health fires chief creative officer over conduct code violation

McCann Health has fired its award-winning chief creative officer Jeremy Perrott after an unspecified complaint and investigation.

Perrott, who has held that role at McCann Health for 10 years, was let go days before the Cannes Lions Health festival that he had been scheduled to attend, according to Campaign US, which was first to report the news on Thursday. A prearranged meeting with FiercePharma reporters and Perrott scheduled at Cannes was cancelled at the last minute, attributed at the time to a “personal emergency” for Perrott.

A McCann spokesperson emailed a statement to FiercePharma on Friday in response to questions about the termination.

“We received a complaint about a violation of our code of conduct by McCann Health’s Jeremy Perrott. As a result, following an investigation, he is no longer with the company. Our foremost priority is to foster a workplace where people are respected and valued, and importantly, an environment where people feel safe and protected to come forward to report actions that run counter to our values and code of conduct.”

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According to Campaign, the complaint against Perrott regarded allegations of "offensive and inappropriate language."

Perrott led the McCann Health team to back-to-back wins as agency network of the year in 2016 and 2017 at Cannes Lions Health. Perrott helped kick off the 2017 Cannes health festival, headlining its first session that year in which he interviewed former astronaut and Columbia University professor Mike Massimino—aka Astro Mike—about creative problem-solving in space.

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Perrott is credited with helped to initiate the first Cannes Lions Health in 2014 after conversations he had with Cannes chairman Terry Savage two years earlier that spurred discussions with other agencies and the ultimate creation of the two-day festival, Ad Age reported.

Before Perrott became chief creative officer at McCann Health, he was executive creative director for McCann Worldgroup Asia Pacific.