The media and comms industry needs colour and cultural evidence at the senior bench level
After attending last week's Smelly Lunch Stories event, Havas Red Australia's managing partner, corporate, Myrna Van Pelt, reflects on her own experience in the industry as a culturally-diverse leader, and asks others to take strides in championing diversity.
Fresh from attending the Smelly Lunch Stories event at Kyiv Social in Sydney last week, in what felt like a multi-coloured and multi-ethnic moment, the industry is finally starting to feel like home.
As a Eurasian, with my European genes mostly invisible, dominated by the stronger Asian genes from both my parents, I felt seen, and heard, when panellist Chris Wirasinha – Pedestrian TV and Linkby co-founder – shared his journey of being different. With a Sri Lankan heritage, he noted he liked to stand out because of his cultural difference, and that by harnessing this, he has been able to use this to his benefit. Being different, can finally be seen as a superpower.
Last week’s panelists
Choosing to follow a career in PR and communications, I never considered that race or the perceptions by others of my cultural footprint would hold me back.
I didn’t know at the time, I had this inbuilt resilience to just forge ahead, shrugging off the ugly racism that had marred some of my teenage years. Looking back and hearing the inspirational stories at the multi-cultural event last week, offered a significant sense of forward momentum for me, and many others in the room.
It feels like the moment of cultural cohesion, though much talked about and with the requisite surface-level wave flagging by many agencies in the past decade, is now genuinely here. There is a palpable sense of recognition.
It’s true too, we have happily witnessed the evolving progress of cultural embrace by the industry, however the point of Smelly Lunch was to highlight that only 12% of leadership teams are represented by cultures other than, well let’s say it, white men and women.
What is that barrier stopping the elevation into senior roles by other cultures in the advertising, media and comms industry? When will boardrooms and senior leadership teams truly reflect greater diversity?
And by diversity we mean the intersection of gender, race, and age. The recent article in Mumbrella by Lauren McNamara calling out Campaign Brief, made the case eloquently. A front-page photo filled with white men celebrating the talent in the industry, offered the finest example of how little distance we have travelled, both in gender diversity and cultural embrace.
The CB spread
I would argue the PR and communications industry has evolved faster than the rest of the media industry but looking around at the room at many industry events, it still feels, for those of us with different cultural faces, that we’re not like the rest. That the sense of cultural recognition, as we walk into the room at a networking event to see others just like us (Asian or otherwise), still has a long way to go.
Here in Havas, I feel embraced and seen. I think largely that’s because the intersection of cultures is evident on every level in the village.
We speak more than 30 different languages and across HAVAS Host, HAVAS Red, HAVAS Media, HAVAS Blvd, One Green Bean, Organic, H/Advisors APA and Bastion Brands. What I love most is the decades that we span across the different teams, where we have team members in their 20s and also in their 70s.
This is a true intersection of diversity.
Camey O’Keefe, who moderated the panel last week, said it best when I caught up with her at the event.
She noted that networking can be a slog and hard work, but of late she had found joy and greater desire to attend these events, as those attending were becoming much more reflective of the diversity of the industry. The Smelly Lunch initiative contributed to that powerful sense of home for many of us. And she was so on point. Walking into the room felt like the United Nations and gave a sense of belonging to someone like me who looks Asian, but culturally identifies as both Australian and Eurasian.
Can we have more of this?
Unconscious bias is everywhere, but the first step is to recognise that we all, instinctive or otherwise, harbour unconscious bias to some degree. Once we do that, the journey to cultural recognition and embrace will enjoy a push in the right direction.
Myrna Van Pelt is the managing partner, corporate, at Havas Red Australia.
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Bravo to Myrna for shining a light on this inconvenient truth… next time you see a photo of a Communications event on LinkedIn, look at who is representing and participating… it speaks volumes about the huge task ahead.
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