Dear AdLand, we are so much more than numbers on your fucking spreadsheet
Updated: Aug 18, 2020
Stepping down from ivory towers and revolutionising the system with real action
I'm writing this at a time where people have been taking to the streets, standing together for causes that we were either ignorant to or felt too helpless to do anything about in the past — climate change, LGBTQ rights, mental health awareness, gender equality, the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movement — to name only a few.
Today, I wanted to focus on the #BlackLivesMatter movement because it's so present on everyone's minds — it's amazing to watch the world finally wake up to what systemic racism is, and how this has moulded our society today — ingrained in us from colonial days. For all of us, we need to appreciate that the way we walk, the way we talk, the way we think, sleep, eat, consume, work, live day to day, absolutely everything — is down to history that has been unravelled before us. The history that we had no control of, but we are paying the price for today.
For everyone who is now taking to social media, marching on the streets, showing solidarity, — I salute you. But there is so much more that we need to do to help change our institutionalised ways — yes, we need more voices so our demands for justice are heard, but we need more pragmatic ACTION too. And that is a responsibility that every single one of us needs to take on board.
To help set the scene, I'm going to lay out a story from the advertising landscape. For those of you that know me, you'll know that I work in advertising, where the level of ethnic diversity is shocking. A recent article posted in The Drum noted:
"UK advertising agencies are falling short when it comes to diversity, with fresh data revealing the number of employees from an ethnic minority background to have dropped over the past 12 months."
"The figures reveal that ad land is falling behind in meeting the IPA’s diversity targets, which are set at 15% BAME representation in leadership roles and 25% among new starters by 2020."
Now there are lots of things wrong with the way advertising deals with employing individuals from ethnic groups — and the first is the idea that we're working to hit a 'diversity target'. The idea of a target just makes us number-orientated, it takes the passion and drive to make systemic change, out of the entire picture. The fact is, it's not just about hiring someone for their ethnicity and ticking a box.
No, it's about inspiring more talented, young, ethnic groups about the opportunities that are in their reach, then watching the number of job applications grow in the sector — the more youths from ethnic groups that realise their potential and see a world of opportunity > the more applications from these individuals > the more authentic it will be to hire and create diversity in the landscape.
Now, back to the point where I say that it is our responsibility to change this — we are capable of so much more than only posting on social media.
Think about it like this, in the UK many youths from ethnic backgrounds have been brought up in areas that our parents or grandparents moved to (could afford to move to, were allowed to move to, felt safe to move to). In many cases, these areas became low income hubs, with little government interest, community or family support. For the youth growing up in these areas, their prospects had already been stunted by things that were completely out of their control.
That's where system change can start — I believe that it should be every single person's duty to find a way to use their professional success to inspire more youths, especially in deprived communities, about the opportunities out there for them. It's time we gave an equal amount of attention to the solution, as well as the the problem itself. It's time we took pride in our success and we used it to inspire others — partnering with other ad agencies, mentoring programmes or schools to talk directly to the change-makers of the future about the work we do, the opportunities out there for them, and the possibilities available today. We need to help create a landscape of equal opportunities, so that when these young kids apply for jobs, they are not only hired for the colour of their skin, but also because they are inspired and great at what they do.
Equal opportunities = An authentically diverse landscape.
It's about all of us doing the leg work to change the system overall. And to be fair, considering the power of #advertising culturally, if that passion isn't in our nature personally, we don't deserve to work in advertising at all.