• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, January 30, 2019

Ralph Watson, the former Crispin Porter Bogusky chief creative officer, is taking his legal battle against Diet Madison Avenue to New York. 

Watson filed a defamation suit earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Manhattan against three New York based defendants and an Illinois-based defendant that Watson says are part of Diet Madison Avenue, the anonymous group that has leveled sex harassment charges against numerous men in the ad business via an Instagram account. 

Watson is seeking $20 million-plus in his New York suit against the four defendants, whom Watson has identified, according to a court filing. But he has not revealed the names of those defendants and won’t “until a suitable protective order is reached by the parties and approved by the Court. Defendant[s] will be served his or her real name, with proof of service being redacted and/or filed under seal.” 

This is Watson’s third DMA-related law suit since the organization first marked him as an alleged harasser, and according to one anonymous accuser a rapist, in early 2018. Last spring he filed a law suit against other unnamed members of the organization in Los Angles. And late Last June he sued CPB (also for $20 million) in a U.S. District Court in Colorado for wrongful termination. Watson alleged that the agency fired him based on the DMA allegations without having any credible evidence that he did anything wrong. The LA and Colorado suits are ongoing.