Is the Australian ad industry more woke than their UK or US peers?
Matt Lawton, managing director of Five by Five Australia, takes a look at how Aussie adland measures up against its UK and US counterparts, in addressing the big issues including gender equality, mental health and the environment.
It’s no secret that many marketing services agencies are struggling to defend their propositions and profit margins against a range of threats.
Beyond the commercial challenges, the industry is also in the cross hairs of environmental and social advocacy pressure groups. We’re a good target because of the influence we can have on culture through our media literacy and ability to impact behaviour change.
And to our industry’s credit, we often see unprompted efforts to lead initiatives.
UK, Gender Equality:
Creative Equals
https://www.creativeequals.org/
Bloom
https://www.creativeequals.org/
Women in Marketing
https://womeninmarketing.org.uk/
Ageism:
Visible
https://www.visible-inc.com/
Mental Health:
NABS
https://nabs.org.uk/
US, Gender Equality:
3PercentMovement
https://www.3percentmovement.com/
SheRunsIt
https://sherunsit.org/
MKTG WMN
https://www.mktgwmn.com/
Racial Equality:
Asians In Advertising
https://www.asiansinadvertising.com/
Asian American Advertising Federation
https://www.3af.org/
AdColor
https://adcolor.org/
Gold House
https://goldhouse.org/
Blackweek
https://www.blackweek.co/
Hispanic Marketing Council
https://hispanicmarketingcouncil.org/
MAIP
https://foundation.aaaa.org/maip.html
Ageism:
GirlsGone50
https://www.girlsgone50.com/
Many causes:
The Ad Council
https://www.adcouncil.org/
I’ve listed only the ones that sprang to mind immediately. I can promise you that in both the UK and the US there are many, many more.
Australian media publishers are the worst when in it comes to hiring and promoting people of colour, women and especially women over 45! Check out the latest headlines of the failing TV, Radio and Digital companies – all led by old white men! When they do bow out or should I say – are finally forced out, they are arrogant enough to think they are going to make great mentors.
We have long way to go in this country – men will still support men!
“Creative people might indeed be best placed to help solve issues linked to climate change” – Yeah Naaa, have they been to the slums of Mumbai lately?
Now show the metrics of the goals defined and the material change that’s been achieved among the hand wringing on the Wikipedia of “social” issues mentioned here .