What The D Word?! Six ways to actually support diversity
Only 16% of people in Australian advertising have a culturally diverse background. If you want to help change that, here are 6 ways to cut the crap and actually push diversity, writes Shyaire Ganglani.
The Australian Advertising industry has a problem. We all know it, but like ostriches, we bury our heads in the sand. How many times has a coworker implied things like English isn’t my first language when it’s the only language I speak? More times than I can count. I kept telling myself that next time, I’d speak up, then next time came and I still stayed silent. Well, no more.
The recent Create Space Census by ACA took a deep dive into Diversity and Inclusion in the advertising industry in Australia. The study showed that one in five people say they’re likely to leave the industry based on a lack of inclusion/discrimination. In fact, according to ‘Only One In The Room’, only 16% of people in Australian advertising have a culturally diverse background. Considering how many creatively talented People of Colour (POC) I know, that’s just ludicrous.
If you want to help change that, here are 6 ways to cut the crap and actually push diversity:
1) Saying you employ lots of women does not count as true diversity. While it’s a good thing, women are no longer the focus minority in this industry. We need to consider the ethnicities, socio-economic backgrounds, age and more. If most of the women you employ are white, then you can’t call it diversity. At previous interviews with large companies, I’ve asked what their diversity is like and they’ve said “we have lots of women”. When asked if they employ many POC, the answer was ‘we’re working on it’ or ‘only in the finance department’.
Action: Put a hiring quota in place and hold your HR team accountable. Then reassess every 3-6 months.
2) Hiring POC at lower salaries is a massive setback. And saying things like ‘they should’ve known their worth and asked for more money’ doesn’t help. It puts the onus on the victim when we’ve been undervalued for centuries. So if we think we deserve less, it’s because the system has drilled this into us. I remember asking for a raise at one of my first gigs in Australia and having the employer tell me that they were doing me a favour by sponsoring my visa. Unsurprisingly, I backed down and didn’t get the raise.
Action: When in doubt, pay your POC more, even if they don’t ask for it.
3) Make a safe and inclusive space. Your team has to ‘do the work’ to make this possible. And everyone has to do it. Your leadership team, your head of departments, not just HR. Change starts at the top. And when someone tells you they felt discrimination, don’t dismiss it. I’ve had HR hear a senior staff member yell ‘UberEats’ at me because I’m brown and was riding my bike out with a backpack and then contact me the next day to smooth things out on their behalf. If you say your agency has a zero tolerance policy, prove it.
Action: Check out Brené Brown’s ‘Braving Inventory’ as a test to see if your environment is a safe, inclusive space.
4) Tip the scales in favour of POC. Promote them, encourage them to speak up and give them more leadership opportunities. I’m not saying to give it to those who don’t deserve it. Putting POC at the bottom of the food chain is harmful, whether it’s conscious or not. Think about the message you’re sending. When we don’t see people like ourselves in senior positions, it feels to us like they are exclusively reserved for people not like us.
Action: Take the time to reassess your team structure and push diversity at every level, especially at the top.
5) Be an ally. If people who look like us are the only ones pushing the agenda, it looks self-serving and desperate. We need you on our side. We need you to start discussions in rooms and speak up. Don’t be afraid to go to bat for us. Start a Diversity/Inclusion group, demand regular meetings, and if it’s not a priority for your company, demand that it is.
Action: Start meaningful conversations. And if you think something is offensive, say something.
6) Push. Your. Clients. To. Push. Diversity. This one’s important. Keep pushing diversity in all your ads. It helps us feel like we belong, it helps those around us know we’re represented and have equal rights to that product or service. I’ve seen a senior white person in the room raise their hand and ask “How are we being representative of diversity with these ads?”. And we need more of that.
Action: Push back on your clients and get all kinds of diversity in your ads, even if they insist ‘it doesn’t feel Australian’. Minorities need representation too.
The first step is acknowledging that we have a massive diversity problem, then, we need to break it down and figure out key focus areas to tackle from lack of representation to discrimination to unconscious biases.
So ask yourself: what will you do to make a change? And to my fellow POC: find a company that will support you, and let you have a voice because it’s incredibly validating and empowering. And trust your gut because if something feels off, it probably is.
Shyaire Ganglani, associate creative director, All Or Nothing.
I’ve worked with this girl and I’m ashamed to say I’ve been present for one of these anecdotes. Wish I’d done something but glad you’re speaking up, girl. Good on ya
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Could not agree less with the brown guy ^. Are you living under a rock? Are they force feeding you the kool aid?
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I fall into this so called category of ‘PoC’ and disagree with the highly selective definition of diversity being used here.
What do you mean by “true diversity” I don’t think you’re going to get a straight answer from anyone, better get the safe spaces ready for use when disagreements happen.
My decade long experience across all sides of the fence in adland, never have I seen a more culturally enriched industry, colleagues and friends speaking different languages, uniting as one for our love of creativity. As close to true diversity as I observe anywhere.
Equality of opportunity over equality of outcome. You create discrimination with the former and that’s never a good thing.
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@brown guy, not sure why you had to air quotes POC like it’s a made up category. I’m not sure if we’ve just had very different luck but I’ve never been more than 1 of maybe 3 people with culturally diverse backgrounds at an agency in Australia. The landscape is changing, yes, but not without people speaking up about their experiences and demanding to see more diversity. The fact is that Australia is not pulling many international ad land awards. This year, we barely nabbed anything at Cannes Lions. That’s because we lack diversity in our thinking. This article is in no way meant to shame the industry. It is meant to encourage them to do better because we need to do better. Equality of opportunity does not exist currently and if you think it does, then tell the flying pigs I said Hello.
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Can someone explain to me why every time this topic comes up you all comment about the industry like you’re not part of it? If so many people are sooooo passionate about diversity then why aren’t we allegedly seeing signs of things improving?
Is it nothing more than pure virtue signalling from an entire industry that is more concerned with marketing itself than its clients?
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Good on you for speaking up ..
I agree wholeheartedly..
Most HR’s assume diversity in the workplace means that the company hires a wide range of diverse individuals based solely on gender n educational background rather then ethnicity, race and more importantly age these days .. (the older workers need to be given jobs too).
Often companies think of symbolically hiring just to “tick a box” to partake in the topic of diversify n inclusion in d workplace.
Companies need to see the huge value that hiring diverse people, personalities and even seniors workers can bring to the table ..
Hopefully, business n government agencies helps to raise awareness n increase employee sensitivity to diversity issues
What is diversity
A group of white people with 1 black man 😂
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Yep, it’s exactly the latter
Many leaders don’t properly understand the issue
They don’t see the deeper issues and how entrenched they are. And if they do, they don’t know how to solve them. Or they push it into someone else’s lap. Or they don’t see a business case to invest. Sadly a low priority for many leaders.
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Its an interesting provocation. From experience, the industry is used to only promoting the positive (to clients, staff etc) and reluctant to be self critical or vulnerable to admitting error. Especially around mental health and diversity. We’ve spoken mental health for a decade and nothing seems to have improved. If anything it gets worse despite these new initiatives.
So diversity initiatives are treated like award entries – overblown and exaggerated and done to receive praise or positivity. It’s the same issue when every agency wants people outside the agency to think it’s “the best place to work”.
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@baffling great question — it is often because the most vocal are the ones at the bottom of the chain. When was the last time you saw a caucasian in a senior position stand up and say “we need to do better”? And then when was the last time you saw 2 or 5 or 7 seniors do that? I’ll wait.
You’re also welcome to jump in and assist. If you’re not seeing improvement and you sound quite passionate about that part then I’m sure you would be welcomed with open arms in trying to change that narrative.
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Such a great article! We need to keep this discussion happening throughout agencies and keep pushing for diversity. Clients and agencies alike have gotten away with this for so long that they don’t even realise or take the time to think about how problematic their actions or words are. I read this article and not even an hour later had a client tell me that their “diversity angle” will be a specific race in a stereotypical job to that race in order to tick off that box. It needs to stop becoming a box to tick and start to be reflective of the actual diverse world that we live in! And agencies need to start pushing that!
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Every time you open LinkedIn one of those two, three, four, five, six industry leaders are proudly and passionately spruiking their diversity initiatives and policies.
Where is the disconnect occurring if all our leaders are allegedly all so passionate about the same cause?
Either diverse members of the industry have developed a victim mentality or the leadership side aren’t really as passionate about diversity as they would have you believe. I believe it’s the latter, which was the point of the original post.
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