Adland urged to take a lead on representing ethnic diversity
Ad agencies should do more to represent the ethnic diversity of Australia, Mediabrands boss Henry Tajer said in a question and answer session at Mumbrella360.
In response to a question from producer Gerard Hosier about the poor representation of ethnic diversity in Australian advertising, Tajer – who is also president of the Media Federation – said agencies should do more.
Around 40 per cent of Australians speak English as a second language or come from non-Anglo backgrounds, yet there is only around three or four per cent of advertising spend diverted into ethnic media, Tajer said. And government bodies with quotas of 7.5-8 per cent to spend on ethnic media could be role models in driving that change.
“Then you can express creatively with a whole layer of culture and a whole layer of depth which I think is really reachable,” he told the Mumbrella360 audience.
And of course advertising which is not representative of our population looks incredibly contrived and odd. When I see and ad with an all white office it strikes me as incredibly strange. I got on a tram a few years ago in Melbourne and I was the only white person on the tram. Perhaps companies need to survey who is buying their products by ethnicity?
I was like the other delegates in the room speechless, you could hear the gasp when McCann announced aggressively that it was not interested in racial diversity. This despite one of their largest clients is made up of that huge diversity of Australian taxpayers; the Australian Government.
What was even more surprising when he took all his clients down into the same space as his company when he said that equality was never discussed. They could not be happy with that.
The Truth is that in 2013 this sort of ideology is unacceptable.
It seems that agencies while they borrow from popular culture and are depended on for strategy, cultural trends and creative direction from clients shy away from saying that they do not take the lead. It is only when they get into trouble with clients or consumers do the blindfolds come off. Our firm has been working with American agencies who are not as bold yet still not successful in creating inclusive cultures.
As the world gets smaller and more diverse the tune will be forced to change.
http://www.slideshare.net/tang.....pact-study
Here is the question.
The huge elephant in the room was wounded.
http://youtu.be/f52o218fT1k
Thank you for your engagement from across the pond. Your slide show “Creating Cultural Agility” was interesting and the Australian advertising world would do good to engage with it. Slide 20 &22 (I felt excluded when) highlight the issues of that should be acknowledged in the industry. We have an industry here that is still green field with respect to your PowerPoint. It is like living in a “Blue Eyes / Brown Eyes Experiment”
I hope your agency would have the opportunity to come to Australia and just get people thinking. We have a very-very long road to travel. I hope the doors will be opened. It can only be good for Australia.