Wieden+Kennedy lays off 90 in Portland office

Published 12:34 pm Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Wieden+Kennedy on Wednesday became the latest signature Oregon company to announce a major layoff.

The advertising agency said it cut 20% of its 440-person Portland office, or 90 jobs.

“Layoffs are terrible,” said Jason White, president of the Portland office, in a statement. “There’s no way to sugarcoat it. But, we’ve gotten to a place in Portland where we need to make changes to align better with how our clients work. Saying goodbye to any of our people is always a last resort, and we never make that decision lightly. Our focus right now is supporting everyone through this transition.”

AdAge first reported the Portland layoffs. Earlier this month, AdAge reported on rippling layoffs across the industry as firms adapt to shrinking advertising budgets and other market changes.

A Wieden+Kennedy spokesperson said the layoffs are part of a restructuring and not because of losing a specific client. A spokesperson also said the Portland firm’s cuts aren’t connected to ongoing layoffs at Nike, a major Wieden+Kennedy client, which is in the process of laying off 2% of its global workforce.

Several other large Oregon employers have announced layoffs already this year. Columbia Sportswear this month said it will cut 3% to 5% of its corporate workforce, for example, and UPS is laying off more than 300 at a Portland sorting facility. Portland-based NuScale Power laid off 154 across the company in January.

Oregon’s labor market remains tight overall, however, and the unemployment rate is near a historic low at 3.7%.

Wieden+Kennedy is among the world’s most prominent advertising firms. Founded in 1982, it coined Nike’s “Just Do It” slogan and has run dozens of memorable ad campaigns for the sportswear giant. Its client list is a who’s who of corporate America and includes McDonald’s, Sprite, Netflix and Facebook, among many others.

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