With Advertising Week Europe taking place next week, talk will surely turn to the issue of diversity in our agencies. The marketing and advertising industries have been rightly called to account in recent months, with gender equality high on the agenda following decades of
male dominance at the top.
We have woken up to the uncomfortable fact that while 80% of consumer spending is directly influenced by women, only 3% of creative directors are female. This stat was the springboard for Kat Gordon’s 3% movement. Launched in 2012, it has mushroomed into a two-day event in New York with a multi-city roadshow throughout the year. It has an active online community, awards events and a blog platform.
Women and men in our industries are concerned about the disparity and perhaps for the first time, are understanding that this kind of inequality is not only manifestly unfair, it’s also incredibly bad for business.
There’s also the issue of our industry’s lack of black and minority ethnic employees. If our agencies are dominated by white, middle class men, is it so surprising that advertisers and brands rarely deviate from white faces to champion and front their products and services?
The diversity issue is definitely live within the marketing and advertising worlds, but I think it would be fair to say that we are squarely focused on gender and ethnicity – with good reason.
The Guardian has just revealed its research of the 70m comments left on its site since 2006. Of the ten most abused writers on their site, eight are women and two are black men.
Employers must do more to address diversity in terms of ethnicity and gender balance, but we need to look at all imbalances across our businesses.
Class, economic background, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender), disability and age are also real areas of concern. We shouldn’t be indulging in a box-ticking exercise in our work and employment practices, so we can win awards, or beat our peers – instead we must reflect the population as it is, not only for society’s good, but for the good of our businesses.
Having a truly diverse workplace is the societal equivalent of a meaningful brainstorm. Brainstorming is, after all, getting a group of diverse people together to share different views to arrive at the best ideas.
If we get together a group of people of the same age, on the same wage and with the same ethnicity and sexual orientation, it’s more than likely we will get a single, homogenised view. We’d never brainstorm that way, so isn’t it odd that we seem okay with this as a working practice?
Diversity brings diversity of ideas, which is what the industry is crying out for at the moment. Take a look at the current crop of marketing from some of our biggest brands and you would be forgiven for thinking that we live in a white, middle class, straight society.
Tesco’s ad, fronted by Ben Miller and Ruth Jones, shows a white, middle class couple shopping with their son. Goodfella’s depicts a similar white nuclear family. Maltesers has young, straight, white friends – the list goes on. There is no nuance, no points of difference, no real diversity. There are exceptions, of course, but by definition, diversity can’t be on an exceptional basis.
Businesses and brands don’t have all the answers, but they do have a very important role to play. Of course we need to look at diversity at the top of our organisations, but the way we employ at junior levels is also crucial.
There has long been a tendency at entry level to employ graduates, but very little attention is paid to school leavers. The London-centricity of our industry also means that it’s only the mobile middle classes that can move for lower paid work. Apprenticeships and training must improve to attract a wider base of people.
We also need to look at the way we work. Do we encourage carers to work flexibly, offer diverse working patterns for those with families or single parents?
If we want diverse marketing and advertising, then we need diverse and inclusive working environments. We’re all different – it’s time that we as an industry started acting that way.
Allan Blair is the head of strategy at Tribal Worldwide London
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