Ogilvy & Mather Group UK asked, “What’s next for advertising in 2017?” The answer seems to be, “The same White-dominated bullshit that’s been happening since at least 1948.”
First of all, the O&M Group UK website is a UX disaster. That aside, the blog post predicting the future of advertising painfully underscores the agency’s exclusivity. White men and White women pontificate on the latest common-knowledge trends, making zero references to diversity, despite Ogilvy Worldwide CEO John Seifert’s desire “to be the most diverse and inclusive group of employees worldwide.” Oddly enough, the UK agency website’s homepage boasts, “We are a diverse group of agencies united by David Ogilvy’s mantra ‘We sell or else.’” Unfortunately, the diverse group of agencies appears to lack, well, diversity.
2 comments:
"Diversity" as a word has jumped the shark, at least when it comes to advertising.
No one at any ad agency ever cared about ethnic diversity, so they just changed the definition to suit their liking.
Now the word means anything from "white people who think slightly differently" to "white women from different privileged backgrounds" to "older white people."
It never, ever applies to black and brown diversity. That's way down the list of priorities, if it's there at all.
The worst part is, clients lap this up. They care more about ad agencies that use the word diversity than any that actually get around to hiring anyone besides white women and their "diverse thinking" white friends.
Prediction:
Disability diversity in print and TV and web campaigns is next on tap. Also talent wearing headscarves to show how open minded brands are about supporting Muslims.
We're going to hear a lot about the importance of hiring elderly (white) people behind the scenes inside ad agencies because, diversity.
On camera we'll see a lot of noticeably disabled people in ads (kids, adults), and agencies full of white people and foreigners will get Adcolor awards for how much they're supporting diversity.
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