Burrell Communications Reviews

One word accurately describes Burrell, though so do many other: JOKE Burrell is a terrible place to work with leadership that is close-minded, out of touch/irrelevant, not intelligent yet very boastful, and operating the company like it's still the 70s. The office, leadership style, and even approach to creative work is very very stale. Much of the staff is bitter, petty, and very gossipy so keep to yourself. There's a lot of yelling/screaming and completely inappropriate and unprofessional behavior here. Every meeting I ever attended there started 10 minutes late .... every single one. They have such little idea of how real businesses are run ... they didn't even have Outlook until like 3 years ago (seriously?). They don't put any effort or investment into digital campaign work because the CCO doesn't understand it (are you kidding me, it's 2016!). By the way, I'm not kidding, that's the real reason, I'm just the messenger. What they do instead is find ways to copy/mimic what other agencies have done and sadly get really excited to do it because they genuinely think that's the best way to produce work. [laughter break] I will say that the creatives are fun, nice, talented, and yearning to do something fresh and exciting but sadly always get suppressed by old man CCO who thinks rebooting and copying what other people have done is the best idea ever. There is an air of fear and it's pretty well known by everyone there that much of the staff is settled in to do the very least to get by so they can collect their checks until retirement. Also if you're not black, you'll regularly feel purposely excluded and condescended upon, by the disrespectful leadership, unless you've been there for like 10 years ... it's almost like internal racism, which is shocking this being the last place you'd expect it. Here's a little secret that I'm surprised their clients haven't realized yet... There is no such thing as a Burrell special sauce ... it's just antiquated advertising technique and thinking with some AA overtones/tie-backs to a stereotypical definition of "black" ... You could just as easily take this advertising in-house or to any other agency and have a good research team write better creative strategy. They're lucky they're owned by Publicis or they wouldn't be able to survive, I honestly don't know how this place is still in business, they haven't won a client in over 2 years as far as I know, besides Hillary, and the work is so bland and uninspired. If you're a client save your dollars, if you're a current/potential employee, save yourself.

Remember when Burrell was a powerhouse in multicultural marketing? Yeah, that’s ancient history now. Ever since the newest CEO and the funding group took over, the company has been in a downward spiral, and leadership seems determined to run it straight into the ground. Let’s start with the basics: They’re losing major clients—some that had been with Burrell for over 50 years! Why? Because the new leadership thinks being “trendy” is more important than actually understanding the brands we serve. Instead of respecting the legacy that made Burrell successful, they’ve thrown strategy out the window in favor of whatever’s hot on Reddit this week. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the work environment is now toxic beyond belief. The new directors? They don’t just lack experience—they talk down to employees like they’re on some kind of power trip. HR? Oh, they’ve fully transitioned from a human resources department to a damage control team for leadership. Even if the company is blatantly breaking the law, HR will spin it, gaslight you, and then—wait for it—start building a case against you so they can fire you instead. Doesn’t matter if you’ve had glowing performance reviews for years; they’ll rewrite your history faster than a bad PR crisis. The “New Burrell Way” isn’t a rebrand—it’s a complete disaster. If you’re thinking about working here, do yourself a favor: run. P.S. Once you're hired in you'll never get a raise. The pay rate you come in at... expect to stay there. You'll also never have a lunch break and work very long hours -- this is expected.