Australian media not adapting fast enough
Brands and creative agencies need to think outside their inner-city bubbles and embrace Australia’s increasing diversity if they want to remain relevant, argues SBS’ Andrew Cook.
Back in 2012, SBS Media launched the trade tag line “Diversity Works”. We’ve been telling clients that Australia is changing and that the Australian media isn’t adapting fast enough to this change. We’ve been asking clients and agencies to think with diversity and include multicultural media in their media plans because we believe that thinking with diversity works.
Nearly one in five Australians speak a language other than English at home with 47% having one or both parents born overseas. 28% were born overseas themselves and 11% identify as LGBTQI*. Australian culture is as wide-ranging as the country’s landscape, so why does the media landscape have a certain sameness about it? Why is there such a disconnect between who we are and what we see on screen?
It’s not news to anyone that the lack of diversity in advertising reflects a lack of diversity in the industry. A PwC report released in June indicated that nearly 83% of the Australian media workforce is monolingual, speaking only English at home. Our industry tends to live in inner-city bubbles, but that doesn’t mean we can’t all think with diversity. The real risk is to ignore multicultural Australia, because I don’t think we can anymore.
Australian media is basically fairy bread: Wonderwhite with colourful sprinkles on the top.
The Australian population is somewhere over 70% Anglo-Celtic, according to census, so why does SBS (and ABC) want to reflect a mix that doesn’t indicate this? Putting more “diversity” on TV than there is in the community leads to the majority of Australians wondering whether they really fit in anymore, they look around and most people are caucasian, but watching SBS indicates that 4 out of 5 women wear hijabs. Then when people complain about the overly-rich ethnic mix shown by SBS, you complain about the rise of the Right, and anti-immigrant politics.
You bring it on yourselves!
Agree completely Andrew