While Rome burns, we are busy building a new city

In this guest post Bec Brideson explains how women are moving to start their own agencies founded on different principles to traditional shops.

It started when a seemingly innocent PR announcement in a string of new hiring’s stirred up a hornets nest, which went global with global industry heavyweight Cindy Gallup’s tweets; then became the headline story for Mumbrella, AdNews and even Fairfax dailies.

It is at the face of it just another gender debate, and example of corporate groupthink. But in fact it highlights more than the lack of diversity in the advertising game. It typifies hegemony seemingly blind to its own biases and disconnected from the audience they are paid to understand and influence.

And there are plenty of industries that have the same issues.