Time to smash the glass ceilings in advertising

Sanjiv Kakkar, ABG Chairman and EVP Unilever MENA, reflects on the importance of Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) in today’s advertising workplace. 

Alongside environmental sustainability, there can be no doubt that DEI – Diversity, Equality and Inclusivity – is a core focus for corporations today, and rightly so. As an industry, it’s fair to say we haven’t always embraced all three facets as rigorously as we should have, and often become stuck in our ways.

Even in 2021, it is regrettable that many ‘glass ceilings’ still exist and need to be smashed. 

But there are positive changes underway, notably in the recent publication of the WFA’s first DEI Census undertaken globally for the advertising and marketing industry, which identified challenges around family status, age and gender, as well as ethnicity and disability. 

While perhaps some of the findings sadly won’t come as a surprise – such as 36% of respondents finding age can hinder careers, and 40% of women agreeing family status can be carrier barriers – the fact that these issues are now ‘out there’ means there can be no more excuses or turning a blind eye. 

Perhaps the most disheartening finding, in an age of #BlackLivesMatter, is that Ethnic minorities reported the most discrimination (24%) and career obstacles (37%). There is still much work to do. 

How we treat people, as brands and consumers, is more complex than simply trying to do the right thing.

We all have to be mindful of ‘unconscious bias’, how our life experiences, values, opinions and judgements can have huge impact on others.

Advertising is full of carefully crafted slogans and fabricated scenarios, which can be open to misinterpretation or, in some cases, perpetuate stereotypes. We have a major responsibility to get it right. 

Ad executives must embrace accessible language, engage with customers, and absorb media – such as reading columns or books, or listening to podcasts – to raise their DEI knowledge and awareness. HR departments must strive for inclusivity and ensure their workforces are representative of cultural changes locally and internationally. This is not just a nice to do but makes strong business sense. 

The DEI census showed the ad and marketing industry in the cosmopolitan GCC is among the leading regions embracing positive change – but it can do more. No disabled respondents reported experiencing discrimination on the grounds of disability in the region. 

But on three key metrics, the GCC’s scores were slightly below the global averages – Overall Inclusion Index (61% versus 64%), Sense of Belonging (67%, 68%) and Absence of Discrimination (95%, 96%), while its Presence of Demeaning Behaviour (20%) was slightly above the 18% global average.

Advertising needs to take a hard internal look at itself, especially with the ‘war on talent’, demand for more flexible work patterns and need to retain staff better. Digital training needs to be stepped up, and accessible to all. Diversity shouldn’t be an aspiration but an imperative, as less diverse companies will become less productive ones. 

The ABG – GCCs leading advertising and marketing body – has been conscious of this need for change and in partnership with UN Women launched the U.A.E. Chapter of the Unstereotype Alliance (UA) in Nov 2020.

The UA is a thought and action platform works towards empowering women in all their diversity by eradicating harmful gender-based stereotypes in all media and advertising content.

For us this is just the start. DEI will continue to be a key focus for all brands in the region, and the challenge is to incorporate it in an authentic manner, and not leave them open to accusations of ‘agenda setting’. 

Creatives and planners must always anticipate the market’s reaction – and see every campaign in its entirety.