Ads Need Soul; Here's How to Get There

amp160STOP hiring friends and relatives who skip to the front of the line because of who not what they know Whether client side or agency side they39re known as quotmusthiresquot a euphemism for white nepotism This kind of opportunity hoarding is an ugly remnant of the Mad Men era and should be chucked into the dustbin of history DO pay your interns and raise your entry level wages to attract more than just rich white kids to the business STOP letting teams hire at the entrylevel DO give HR more power to determine qualifications and challenge teams to work with people who are different from them and contribute a wider range of backgrounds and experiencesSTOP hiring diversity officers A growing body of evidence suggests that the diversity industrial complex has lost its way and is even enabling systemic racism DO read Pamela Newkirk39s book Diversity Inc The Failed Promise of a BillionDollar Businessamp160and follow the lead of CocaCola39s highly successful diversity transformation by using external monitoring to build trust with both your brands and the public STOP pouring money into antibias training Newkirk cites research showing that the results are mixed and often backfire DO read and implement the 4A39s Equity ampamp Inclusion Manifesto It was created through a democratic quotcongressionalquot process that included the participation of over 300 stakeholders and is full of great ideasSTOP expecting the advertising industry to hold itself accountable through selfregulation They39ve been failing at this for decades Instead DO report agencylevel diversity data on an annual basis so consumers and advertisers can adjust accordingly Insist that the 4A39s make such public reporting an industry norm by requiring it of all its members Anything less means they39re just not serious about fixing a problem that has festered under their watchSTOP pretending that substantive change will happen without baselines targets incentives and yes penalties The ghosts of Mad Men continue to haunt Madison Avenue decade after decade because for far too long the symbolic expression of good intentions with no external mechanism for measurement or material consequences for failure has been allowed to count as quotprogressquot Advertising39s unique ability to persuade by creating the appearance of change has helped agencies conceal and protect white gains and Black losses behind the scenes for generations And when it comes to feigning reform while continuing to marginalize Black lives and maintain white power advertising has a long record as a repeat offenderDO listen to Black women like Alicia Garza Speaking at last year39s ADCOLOR conference Garza addressedamp160the limits of representation symbols without substance the need for Black vision and strategy and why we need not just values but rules consequences and yes STOP signsquotSure we might be able to say there are black people in a Csuite but the positions that we often hold are those of diversity consultants right That has become kind of a new trend across corporate America You know we don39t want to get slammed for not having Black representation and so we39re going to make sure that we have a position often filled by a Black person often filled by a Black woman that39s going to look at diversity and inclusion in our company And we39re going to have a lot of great conversations about diversity We39re going to make sure that we do things like celebrate Black History Month and you know maybe we39ll even do you know a video chat about Fannie Lou HamerquotBut at the end of the day representation is not everything and it39s not enough That is a clear example of how we have symbolamp160without substance What we need to be doing is making sure that our companies are led by the vision and strategy of Black people who frankly are bringing the experience of what it means for Black people to be excluded right Not just from the staffing of a company but for the vision and the strategy And we need to make sure that that space is wide open We need to also ensure that we are paying Black people equitably in relationship to their peers inside of a companyquotValues are important but also rules are important and rules are what shape our everyday lives If we only talk about people39s personalities and right and wrong and good and bad people then we are only going to get the kinds of interpersonal solutions that rely on people39s goodwill as opposed to accountability to each other When you39re driving you stop at a stop sign That is a rule that then has a consequence if you break it And you can be a really nice person and run a stop sign but if you run a stop sign you are going to get a ticket And who would be displaced right And what would be the impact of that I think those are uncomfortable conversations that we need to have in order for that reckoning to start to become completequotClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNetamp160

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Christopher Boulton

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