What ageism looks like from where I sit
After sharing her thoughts about marketing's ageism problem on LinkedIn, Anne Miles received a comment which got her thinking about the one discrimination nut adland can't - and won't - crack.
There is no hiding it – I am obviously aged above the big 4.0, right? Being appointed to head of TV at 21, I was on the upside of our industry’s ageism issue at one time.
My observations are also flavoured from being a former business coach and assisting a number of creative businesses, which I consider a fairly useful perspective when it comes to ageism.
Last week, I commented on a LinkedIn post that shared Bob Hoffman’s article about the ‘Age of Creativity’. In the article, he shared that creative departments employ 0% over 50, despite 42% of the adult working population being in that bracket.
The Pulitzer Prize in creative categories had been awarded to a ridiculously long list of people over 50 and there was a claim that not one would likely be given a job in an ad agency today, despite their talent.
Hoffman’s article makes it clear that there’s no shortage of 50+ creative talent
This data is interesting, but my experience online is where it really lit up. I commented to say how I felt at the ‘top of my game’ having hit over 4.0. To me, that means I have more experience and qualifications under my belt now, beyond what I ever did when I held senior roles in agencies.
The comment thread included this, and it says it all: “I love it how all the grey creatives get the shits with articles like this. You guys are luck[y] you lived and worked in the golden time of advertising. In a content driven world that is fast paced the oldies ‘no offence’ don’t have the energy to keep up…so make way for the new talent and embrace the fact that young brands don’t like old people ‘full stop’. You are the reason this world we live in is turning to shit…’ and it rants on.
Around this time, some big agencies announced ‘departures’ of some of the best talent in this industry. They all seemed to have greying or receding hairlines.
This started much discussion in the industry about the fiscal viability for agencies hiring less experienced people in order to make a profit – independent marketing management consultancy TrinityP3 pitched in with their thoughts on the matter. I agree that the ageism issue is not just a mindset, and that it is about profitability. But it is definitely both.
I’ve seen production and creative teams refuse to hire senior people at the same cost of younger talent, so there goes the fiscal argument.
Less experienced people felt ‘too intimidated’ to hire mature talent. Sometimes this turned into a reality because they ended up looking like they didn’t know what they were doing – and they didn’t.
Agency profitability is wired for bias, and I believe the root of that is the time sheet model. There is no benefit for efficiencies or proven experience. In an ironic twist, this is exactly the same issue that is causing agencies to be unsustainable and to lose profit in the long run. More on the fiscal calculations here for anyone interested.
My week also included a meeting with a head of department in an agency who looked through me across the boardroom table as if I was invisible. He even played on his phone instead of meeting me eye to eye for an uncomfortably long time. (Would he have done that to a man?).
There was no way he could ever see that my business model would add value to what he does, because he wasn’t willing to see.
Another meeting involved a well-meaning creative director looking for new ways of doing things, but feeling trapped in the cycle of having to use less experienced and less competent people because he had mouths to feed.
Oh, and the other bunch of people who don’t even answer a call or an email at all.
The other side of the coin here is the experiences I had on the client side of the fence. How about the CEO and marketing director who approached me, unsolicited? They looked up to my experience. They even said ‘wow’ at some point.
How about the brand that said that their agency wasn’t delivering enough actual content and all they got was a time sheet charge? I remember those $20K meetings when client side!
It’s time something changed and we stopped simply talking about it. I’ve hit a tipping point.
If anyone wants to join me, check out the anonymous Big Ideas Challenge here. It’s an avenue for the best talent to be found, and for there to be no consideration to age, location, gender or culture bias – just great talent, relevant experience and great ideas.
Let’s change the model, let’s change our attitude. I’m fed up with being invisible when I know I have the most value to offer.
Anne Miles is managing director of international creative services, an artist collective and full service creative projects company.
Well said. A friend commented the other day about how she was an ‘old marketer’ in terms of her offering. I replied that experience, skill and a strategic approach were never old.
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Ageism appeared the moment accreditation died. It meant Agencies simply didn’t have the money to keep the experienced talent they and their clients had always relied on. Trust me, if agencies had the money, they would prefer more experienced people working on their clients business – because that’s certainly what clients want.
People like Anne 4.0, 5.0 or 6.0 – we need more of them, not fewer.
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I blame young people, how dare they not recognise my brilliance.
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Anne, Its an issue that has been around around for a while and clearly the industry feels no willingness to change at all. You and I have debated it from a few different sides and men and women experience it in different ways. I have even met women 40 plus who would prefer to work with men younger than them as they feel that all men over a certain age all fit into a certain stereotype of being against older women.This paints all older men as haters of older women. Sad really but unfortunately true.
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When you come up against ageism in advertising it dawns on you that the industry really isn’t about producing the most effective ads. It’s about a whole lot of other shit, with the advertising almost as an afterthought.
And all that other shit is generated by you if you’re over 45? Just isn’t. Sorry.
Personally, at 61 I’m more creative now and than when I started out. But whose gonna believe that? Only way to prove it is by doing the work, anonymously. Go for it Anne!
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Thumbs up!
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In my 20s I was the whiz kid creative, becoming CD of a multi national at the age of 26. All my clients were old men. In my 30s, as an award winning ECD, I traveled the world as part of an ‘international creative directorate’ team (yes, that’s what we were called!) working for our multi national on our multi national accounts. All my clients were still old men, although some of the marketing people were in their 40s. In my 40s I started my own agency. All my clients were my age – younger men also in their 40s and some were even women! In my 50s I became a consultant. All my clients were now business owners and entrepreneurs in their 40s and 50s. In my 60s, I’m now the elder statesman, still creating and advising and passionate and loving it because I’m ‘very experienced’ as one of my younger clients in her 30s regularly observes! For me, ageism has never been an issue, although I do suffer from a bit of reverse ageism finding many ‘digitally entrenched’ younger creatives not very creative! But then I reckon I’ve earned the right to have an opinion.
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https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fck-you-we-wrinkly-ninjas-lyndon-hale/
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Thanks for the support! It is greatly appreciated. Time to do something practical about it I think…
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Thanks for the support everyone. Crazy amount of emails offline about this too. Thank you!
If you are top talent (age or gender is irrelevant), then please connect and share your folio with me! I think there are brands that want the value. Check out my maths on how it is more cost effective to use experienced talent and as a project based engagement rather than using time sheets here:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ad-agency-model-broken-heres-why-anne-miles/
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A couple of weeks ago some agencies would have been the exception to Bob Hoffman’s tirade. They had several creatives in their fifties. They were the most productive chaps and chapettes in the agency, and won the most awards.
Nevertheless, everyone over 40 was let go because clients wouldn’t pay for senior people any more. Translated, this means the management of that agency and their brethren have been unable to do their most basic task. Which is to manage the business so they make money.
They’ve had 20 years (since the death of media commissions) to fix this. And they’ve failed miserably.
The worst mistake, as eloquently addressed in Madison Ave Manslaughter, was moving to an hourly rate. Like a studio. This immediately said to clients that ideas are a commodity, not something transformative.
And when dealing with a commodity, you naturally try to get it as cheap as possible.
Consultants like McKinsey don’t say to clients that we’ll reinvent your business for $300 an hour and it will take 40 hours. They save we’ll reinvent your business for $2 million dollars.
And clients are happy to pay inspire of (or because of) the fact they are buying a chimera.
Truth be told, some clients don’t want or need what senior people provide. You don’t need someone with 20 years experience and lots of awards to create a content video no-one will watch.
But others do want them, and will pay for them.
The fact that agencies can’t work how to make a profit from this is, as I said, an indictment of their skills, and those of their holding company overlords.
Put it this way. Would Accenture have paid $60 million for The Monkeys if they didn’t see a gaping opportunity to make money?
I suspect not.
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Well said Anne!!! Time to let the experience in our industry show that experience (Ageism) is not a negative tick to ROI. Under performing agencies who knowingly put out under par (crap) work for clients because of inexperienced talent should be given the red card immediately. Clients pay top dollar and should be given top dollar creatives with experience no matter the hair colour or shiny spot.
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@ExperiencedCreative – you write beautifully and make a solid stategic argument about a really valid issue. Firstly, thanks for supporting this point and bringing a new way to see this, and second – please contact me!
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That you Petros?
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Bravo. Well said!
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My career has been working in design and advertising agencies for nearly 30 years. However, I left agency life and have been recruiting for our communications industry for the past 3 years.
Our industry has a very vocal gender equality/diversity debate raging, but – frankly (and probably controversially) – I haven’t come across evidence of this after interviewing over 800 people and countless agency hiring managers! What I do see, on a unfortunately-regular basis, is ageism and ‘racial preference’.
The ageism I see usually affects women over 40 and men over 50. Those who tend to deny this reality are either at the top of their game in an agency; aged under 40; or self-employed.
Given that a person has to figure out how to fill their career from aged 50 to 70 years and retirement, that’s a daunting thought when you may have only ever had one career pathway.
I agree that there are multiple reasons why we see a lack of senior people in our agencies, and none of those reasons are particularly easy to solve.
All is not lost however…grey hair and wrinkles seem to be happily embraced by client-side companies and consultancies who care more about talent and value than how someone looks. Such a novel thought.
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I run a team of +30 global designers and writers, all younger than me. At +5.0 I’ve been the oldest of the team for the last 6 years. My most reliable performers, who do the best work are consistently the oldest on the team. Their experience and dedication to precision work trumps the young “creatives” who too often can’t fully see the big picture and design to solve what’s in front of them at the moment rather than to achieve the broader mission.
Next week we have a new team member starting. SHE is older than me, and her extensive experience and sharp mind will be a welcome addition to the team.
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Could not agree with you more! Love your view!
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Interesting article. As an aspiring junior creative aged 35 it’s been impossible to find work regardless of education and internships. I hate to think how short my career would be if I were to be hired now.
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