Advertising Age published a report titled, “US ad employment dropped in March for the fourth straight month”—replete with graphic charts depicting the downslide.
Can’t help but wonder how many of the lost jobs came from eliminating Human Heat Shields in these anti-DEIBA+ times.
Don’t expect Ad Age to design diagrams detailing those figures.
Adweek reported on the 2024 WPP Annual Report, exposing two points that warrant further examination:
1. WPP CEO Mark Read got a 15% pay cut.
2. DEIBA+ got a 100% editorial cut.
In 2016, WPP declared its people “represent perhaps the most diverse example of diversity of any single organisation.”
In 2020–2021, Read confessed internal data “underlines the work we have to do to ensure greater representation of Black, Asian and other under-represented communities within WPP—especially at the more senior levels … we have a huge amount of work to do…”
And now, the White holding company has completely deleted DEIBA+ from the corporate cultural conversation.
Additionally, the 2021 WPP performative PR claimed executives’ bonus plans would be tied to achieving DEIBA+ goals. Of course, the goals were never defined, and there was no transparency to prove such alleged mandates had been enforced.
If Read’s pay cut resulted from failure to meet DEIBA+ goals, it should have far exceeded a 15% reduction. And how convenient that DEIBA+ was stricken from the annual report. It’s as if Read had texted, “NVM CUL8R DEIBA+ ROFLMAO.”
In summation, WPP DEIDICATION is 1000% bullshit.
Mark Read’s Pay Hit, DEI Silence, And Other Key Takeaways From WPP’s Annual Report
Four things you may have missed from the 2024 edition
By Rebecca Stewart
WPP has filed its annual report, weeks after it disappointed the market with weaker-than-expected earnings results for 2024.
Beyond the numbers, the document offers a closer look at the ins and outs of a busy, challenging year for the U.K.-based holding company.
2024 included consolidation and restructuring across its biggest agencies (including VML and GroupM); a weak performance in China; and client losses (Pfizer and Sky Media), along with wins (Amazon and Johnson & Johnson).
ADWEEK has highlighted some of the key takeaways from the 210-page document. These include an update about Read’s pay, a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) language revision, and new information on WPP’s AI strategy.
1. CEO Mark Read’s pay dropped 15% in 2024
CEO Read’s total pay package, including bonuses, was reduced to £3.8 million ($4.9 million) in 2024.
Per previous annual reports, the leader’s pay packet has shrunk significantly over the last three years in line with disappointing financial results. In its latest update, WPP reported £11.35 billion ($14.38 billion) in 2024 revenue less pass-through costs, down 1% on a like-for-like basis.
In 2022, Read received close to £6.7 million ($8.6 million) in total pay and bonuses. By the end of 2023, his pay package had fallen 33% to £4.5 million ($5.8 million).
The latest decrease marks another 15% decline year-on-year.
2. The term ‘DEI’ wasn’t mentioned
In a world where President Trump has instructed federal agencies to terminate DEI programs and where brands like Amazon, Ford, and Target are rolling back theirs, WPP’s annual document cut all references to “diversity, equity and inclusion,” “DE&I,” and “DEI” for 2024.
In 2023, the term was used 20 times, with WPP describing itself as a “diversity leader” three times.
In 2023, the holding company also listed “people and DE&I” as a key measure of executives’ non-financial performance, which impacts their short-term bonus packages. This year, the term used was changed to “people and culture.”
The company said that while the phrasing in its annual report had changed, the criteria used to calculate executives’ short-term bonuses remained “unaltered” for 2024.
In his CEO statement in the report, Read said: “In today’s complex world, a pressing question for brands and organizations is whether to engage on social issues in a more contested public arena, and how to navigate the expectations of different audiences with competing views on sensitive topics.”
He said that though political events had changed, WPP’s aim was “to foster a culture of respect for one another in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.”
He added: “We also believe a workforce that reflects the world around us, and the consumers our clients want to reach, helps us do the best work and is good for business.”
WPP is not alone in revising its language.
Per data from market analysts FactSet and company filings analyzed by the Financial Times, more than 200 of America’s largest corporations have culled mentions of DEI and related terms from their own updates.
Of the top 400 companies in the S&P 500 index, 90% of those that have filed an annual report since Trump took office for the second time have cut at least some references to DEI, with many ditching the term entirely.
3. Six agencies deliver over 90% of WPP’s revenue
2024 marked the first full year of operation for the newly formed VML (2.0), which brought together VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson under a single agency.
Media arm GroupM, which Read is betting on to deliver growth in 2025, also saw big changes in 2024, including a restructure and new CEO in 2024 with the hire of InfoSum boss Brian Lesser.
WPP said a more streamlined business model meant it shifted in 2024 to serve clients through six key agency networks – AKQA, Burson, GroupM, Hogarth, Ogilvy, and VML. Combined, these represented more than 90% of its revenues for the year.
“This simpler structure has enabled a stronger, more integrated offer across our creative, production, commerce, and media capabilities, supporting an improved new business performance in the second half of 2024 and good growth across our top 25 clients of 2.0% for the full year,” Read asserted.
4. Like its rivals, it’s increasing its investment in AI
Along with GroupM, the business is hoping AI will help it outpace competitors and return to growth in 2025.
It said the number of staff using its WPP Open AI-powered operating system increased from 10,000 in 2023 to 33,000 in 2024.
It credited the tool, which automates media planning and content creation at scale among other things, for helping it secure wins from brands such as Amazon and Unilever. Read said adoption was also growing among existing clients, including Google, L’Oréal, LVMH, and Coca-Cola all “seeing benefits” from the propriety tech.
In 2025, the company will increase its annual investment in WPP Open from £250 million to £300 million.
Adweek reported on an April Fools’ Day stunt from the creators of Blackweek, whereby the group changed its name to Blankweek as a response to the anti-DEIBA+ vibe in Adland and the USA.
Can’t help but wonder how Blackweek and its crew will ultimately fare while Adland continues to abandon DEIBA+—along with associated performative PR and heat shields.
When White advertising agencies and White adpeople are probed on their awareness of Blackweek, will they draw a blank? Do they already?
Blackweek April Fools Stunt Puts a Spotlight on DEI Rollbacks
Conference organizers changed the name of the event to ‘Blankweek’ yesterday to spark industry conversation
By Cydney Lee
Ad industry observers may have noticed yesterday that Blackweek, the industry conference dedicated to unlocking the spending power, influence, and potential of diverse consumers, changed its name to “Blankweek” in response to ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) rollbacks imposed by the government.
ADWEEK can confirm that the name change was an April Fools prank meant to drive awareness to the erasure of DEI progress across U.S. companies and culture.
“In this environment, [descriptors] like ‘Black,’ ‘female,’ ‘LGBTQ,’ and ‘diverse’ are being erased,” explained Walter T. Geer III, Blackweek co-founder and chief creative officer of innovation at VML North America. “We’re poking fun at that and the fact that so many brands and agencies are cowering down on [DEI].”
On Monday, March 31, Geer shared a seemingly truthful LinkedIn post announcing Blackweek had changed its name: “After careful deliberation and conversations with our team and families, and looking at the current climate and movement to erase certain words from the business world, we have made the tough decision to change our name to Blankweek,” he wrote.
In the post, he also shared a link to a new Instagram page for Blankweek, which included another link to the conference’s website complete with the new Blankweek name and logo.
Other Blackweek founders posted about the alleged name change, including Andre Gray, chief activation officer and head of culture and entertainment at Havas Lynx New York; Adan Romero, evp and executive creative director at Razorfish; and Joe Anthony, CEO and founder of Hero Collective.
The war on DEI
Recently, in response to a changing political climate, brands including Target, Lowe’s, Molson Coors, and Walmart have reversed their DEI efforts in various ways, from ditching hiring quotas to ending programs and surveys meant to support diverse employees.
This war on DEI reached the highest levels of the federal government earlier this year as President Donald Trump took office. In January, on inauguration day, he signed an executive order “ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing.”
Since then, Trump has signed a series of orders clamping down on DEI programs, most recently urging Vice President JD Vance to remove “divisive, race-centered ideology” from the Smithsonian Institution and its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo.
These mandates have forced brands and agencies, which made bold promises and set aggressive goals around DEI in the wake of 2020’s Black Lives Matter movement, to re-strategize.
For Blackweek’s founders, April Fools presented an opportunity to raise awareness of these reversals by showing “how ridiculous it is to issue these mandates,” said Anthony.
“What we’re seeing is a compounding attack on nomenclature, words, and terminology in an attempt to try to make America this homogenous place, which we know is not the foundational principle of what [leads to] great creative ideas,” he continued.
While the founders were hopeful that the stunt would not just drive awareness but outrage among diverse pockets of the industry, reactions to Geer’s LinkedIn post were somewhat muted, with many commenters offering their understanding and support of the “tough decision.”
However, Geer said that out of the public eye, others reached out to him directly to reprimand him for the name change and accusing him of “bending the knee.”
“I think people would never in a million years expect this,” said Geer. “Never in a million years would they expect us to essentially fold in the moment like what many companies are doing.”
Blackweek is here to stay
Despite the ongoing retreat from DEI—and the April Fool’s prank—Blackweek is here to stay, and it’s preparing for a strong second year.
Blackweek held its inaugural conference in New York City in October 2024. The event was self-financed with support from sponsors like WPP, Dentsu, IPG, and TikTok.
In 2025, Blackweek’s founders are looking to expand the event to “an economic forum and festival,” said Gray. The conference will act as a “content accelerator,” highlighting artists and creatives more through programming like showcases, film screenings, and performances.
“We’re doubling down on culture, and we need the community to double down with us,” said Anthony.
Anthony said that the conference is on track to retain nearly 80% of its sponsors this year, but shared that some prospective sponsors (which he declined to name) have expressed concern around Blackweek’s name “and how that aligns with the current climate.”
“The reason why we chose the term ‘Black’ was not necessarily to exclude other communities, but to highlight the cultural contributions and the license that Black culture gives other marginalized and oppressed communities to speak up for themselves,” Anthony said.
Update April 1 8:25am ET: This story was updated to clarify that Blackweek aims to reach diverse audiences, not just Black audiences.
More About Advertising reported on how “plenty of employers are quietly finding clever ways to circumvent [President Donald J.] Trump’s executive orders” to nix DEIBA+ initiatives.
The cleverness includes introducing new acronyms and utilizing whitewashed descriptors for heat shields.
One DEIBA+ advocate opined, “The reason most people voted for the current administration had nothing to do with rejecting inclusion and more to do with the economy and a sense of security around immigration and borders.”
Okay, except Ibram X. Kendi declared racism is rooted in “powerful economic, political, and cultural self-interest.” Plus, “a sense of security around immigration and borders” is arguably about denying non-Whites access to the places and privileges exclusive to the ruling majority.
In short, the responsive and revisionist verbiage dodges a simple truth: anti-DEIBA+ is pro-racism.
When everyone’s ditching DEI, what happens next?
By Emma Hall
What do you do when Donald Trump has you in his sights? It’s a problem that US diversity, equity and inclusion specialists are wrestling with now that even straightforward words like “female,” “women,” “historically” and “victims” are officially considered problematic.
The answer for some businesses, like Google, Amazon, Meta, Paramount, Pepsi, and Coca-Cola, has been to roll back DEI policies. But while their dramatic u-turns have attracted all the publicity, plenty of employers are quietly finding clever ways to circumvent Trump’s executive orders.
In the process, a new vocabulary and a new acronym – FAIR (fairness, access, inclusion and representation) – are injecting fresh energy into former DEI initiatives which, let’s face it, were in need of a reset. DEI had become less about creating change and more about ticking boxes: one-off workshops, a performative approach and an over-reliance on burnt out volunteers had already created a backlash against it.
FAIR is outlined by Lily Zheng in the Harvard Business Review. She gives the example of an introverted person who is often spoken over in meetings. A 50-minute lunch event on “the power of introverts” attended by a handful of people is not going to help. Introverts are better supported by receiving meeting agendas ahead of time, and by managers with good meeting facilitation skills.
The goals are the same but the emphasis is on outcomes rather than intentions; debiasing systems rather than “fixing” individuals, and communicating the win-win value of this work rather than giving in to zero-sum narratives.
Valeria Piaggio, global head of inclusive growth at Kantar’s Sustainable Transformation Practice, says: “I think most companies are changing their vocabulary without making a big announcement. It’s important to note that the political climate does not reflect the average consumer. Based on our studies, people want inclusion in their lives and they want it from brands as well. It’s even more important in the many places where people experience discrimination while they are out shopping.”
Piaggio adds: “The reason most people voted for the current administration had nothing to do with rejecting inclusion and more to do with the economy and a sense of security around immigration and borders. The fact that some other issues are now at the top of the agenda is puzzling to them. And the prices are not going down.”
A backlash against companies that roll back DEI is already having an impact. Target, which made a rather abrupt volte face on 24th January, has seen a traffic slump ever since. For the week beginning March 10th, foot traffic fell 7.1% year on year.
In the end, it’s about better business sense. Piaggio says: “Most companies understand that they need diversity and an inclusive culture in order to be more competitive. You need employees who understand different cultural influences and segments, and you need to be able to communicate in a way that aligns with the values and beliefs of different audiences and generations.”
Piaggio points to the Hispanic market, which is growing disproportionately compared to other groups in the US – not just in terms of buying power but also in terms of shaping the culture. If you don’t have connections to that community, you aren’t going to be able to respond to this kind of cultural shift.
FAIR is not all cloak-and-dagger DEI: some companies, including Costco, Chase and Nasdaq, are brave enough to restate their commitment to the cause.
Piaggio concludes: “[The BLM movement in] 2020 was a loud awakening for the need to embrace diversity and change, but maybe we didn’t think enough about how that makes others feel. Inclusion is a delicate balancing act. Equity was one of the words that went first because it creates most friction: when you reach out to empower groups that are under-represented, those who are part of the status quo or think they are entitled to those positions feel threatened. You need to make sure everyone understands why we need that diversity, and that one person’s opportunity doesn’t have to hurt someone else. Merit is still the driving force.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 1, 2025
Omnicom to acquire IPG, WPP, Publicis Groupe, Dentsu, Havas, and Stagwell
280 Park Avenue, New York, NY -- Omnicom Group Chairman-CEO-Pioneer of Diversity John Wren announced the White holding company plans to supplement its pending acquisition of IPG, adding WPP, Publicis Groupe, Dentsu, Havas, and Stagwell to the global empire.
The groundbreaking enterprise will be called Omnicombo. Or Omnicommode. Or Omnicolonizer.
The move is estimated to save gazillions, although analysts predict identifying redundancies, addressing client conflicts, and rejiggering hierarchies could take decades.
The proposed scheme sets a world record for C-suite executives’ golden parachutes—and all other staffers’ golden showers.
Under the new regime, Chief Diversity Officers, ERGs, performative PR, and heat shields will be replaced and/or executed by AI technology, pending the development of unbiased algorithms. In the interim, expect such responsibilities and duties to be delegated to BIPOC receptionists, mailroom attendants, janitorial crews, and security personnel.
Advertising Age published a perspective advocating for DEIBA+ that ultimately dilutes the global discussion by introducing yet another underrepresented group—SWANA (people of Southwest Asian and North African descent).
Increasing the number of marginalized segments in Adland, however, does not lead to an increase in crumbs. Rather, it probably increases indifference and disinterest from the ruling majority.
BTW, April is SWANA Heritage Month. Don’t expect major brands to present performative promotions recognizing the event.
DEI Retreat Empowers Brands To Create Work Driven By Conviction, Not Policy
Standing outside DEI’s frame gave Southwest Asian and North African creators a clear view of how to create true change
By Mohammad Gorjestani
As DEI evaporates across culture and industry, a critical question remains: Whose vision of diversity was being implemented in the first place? For the advertising and creative industries, DEI’s retreat represents a significant loss and a seismic shift in what gets produced, whose voices are amplified and whose careers advance.
For Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) creatives, however, it’s business as usual—we’ve been operating and hustling outside these structures all along.
I was born in Iran to artist parents and grew up in Section 8 housing in the San Francisco Bay area. My studio, Even/Odd, was founded out of necessity. Coming from a low-income background with no higher education, the unconventional stories I wanted to tell from the margins—and the way I wanted to tell them—lacked mainstream appeal.
I’ve been primed throughout my life to develop an attuned instinct that, among many things, has helped me see through the theater of concepts reminiscent of “DEI” long before they morphed into industry buzzwords.
These frameworks have always been cropped, flattening the “different” into digestible categories that conveniently excluded communities such as mine. SWANA identities aren’t just overlooked; our exclusion reveals DEI’s fundamental design flaws. What’s happening now isn’t a retreat. It’s power shedding a temporary disguise, returning to form after a brief, unconvincing performance.
The calculated blind spots in DEI’s vision
SWANA is not even considered an official minority group. Census designations label us “white,” erasing our lived experience. This bureaucratic fiction is absurd given decades of post-9/11-ism, travel bans and interventions in the Middle East.
When agencies establish quotas for diverse suppliers, we do not “count.” The National Minority Supplier Development Council doesn't recognize SWANA-owned businesses. The result? Systematic exclusion from economic opportunities that are supposedly designed to uplift marginalized communities.
While the industry congratulated itself for progress, our exclusion from minority recognition revealed DEI's fundamental contradiction: a framework supposedly built for inclusion that selectively determined which communities deserved recognition. The system welcomed dissent, but only to a point. The glaring omission of SWANA reveals just how unserious and haphazard DEI education has been.
For example, the same industry that spent a year championing Black Lives Matter was, like the rest of culture-at-large, absent in 2023—the deadliest year of police killings on record in the United States. This erasure exposes the nature of corporate DEI efforts: diversity was always more about fashion than reform.
The advertising and creative industry's approach to diversity also created a monolithic ecosystem where talent was compartmentalized by identity. Black creators were given agency to create work about Black culture and Asian creators for AAPI month, while white creatives maintained the freedom to explore any subject at any moment. This pigeonholing isn’t just limiting—it can be a career dead-end, leaving creators with nothing once identity opportunities dry out.
Let’s get past the ‘Struggle Olympics’
DEI also inadvertently turned diversity into the “Struggle Olympics”—creators competing for limited resources by chasing the latest DEI trend. This dynamic pushed many toward reactive work, where cosplaying activism became a necessary tool to gain visibility. Many were reduced to reactive commentators rather than multidimensional visionaries. And the worst part is that people began to play into this and abandon that inner artist.
SWANA’s exclusion in DEI frameworks made me refuse to engage in projects that felt sentimental rather than singular or substantive. Too often, DEI initiatives encouraged work that allowed dominant audiences to feel momentarily moved without having to confront structural realities. That kind of performative engagement was the canary in the coal mine.
Terms such as BIPOC are also an issue, flattening distinct cultural experiences and erasing the specificity that gives stories their power. Iran, a multiethnic country distinct from the Arab world, is frequently lumped into vague “Middle Eastern” representation. Within agencies, SWANA creatives rarely received even the limited recognition given to other marginalized groups. When visibility came, it was often reduced to creating “Middle Eastern” campaigns or Muslim-focused content, disregarding the region’s and diaspora’s rich diversity of faiths, cultures and perspectives.
True diversity means freedom to create beyond prescribed boundaries. Creative autonomy should be a universal right. Excellence is multiplied by authenticity, but when agencies reduce diverse creators to cultural representatives rather than full-fledged artists with unlimited potential, they practice sophisticated tokenism, not inclusion.
The future of DEI—or whatever it might be called next—requires the advertising and creative industry to fundamentally rethink its approach. If its blind spots regarding SWANA communities can be addressed, it might offer a blueprint for a more substantive framework—one that creates genuine opportunities for paradigm-shifting work rather than reactive, identity-based slots.
Agencies, brands, and studios should examine their talent pipeline, asking not just “Do we have diverse creators?” but “Are we allowing all creators the same self-determination?”
We also need to separate cultural equity from economic equity. There’s a difference between an industry promoting diversity on its website and an industry ensuring diverse founders have access to real capital and opportunities. If DEI 1.0 served only to help existing institutions navigate this moment unscathed, then we must be vigilant about what comes next. The goal should not be to help these structures shape-shift into the next trend but to demand new pathways that challenge their dominance altogether.
The silver lining of this moment is that it offers a lot of clarity—revealing who remains committed to genuine inclusion and who has retreated to the next industry trend. As the corporate spotlights dim, we can now distinguish between fickle allies and those in for the long haul. This is an opportunity for agencies to reexamine their principles and create work driven by conviction, not manufactured policy.
Ultimately, we must move beyond DEI as a label and toward what it should have always represented: the critical understanding that the most vital creative breakthroughs emerge from the periphery. And investing in the infrastructure to support that is necessary—not just for the SWANA community, but for everyone who has been excluded from the industry’s prescribed narratives. When we can create from outside the center, we create new reference points that shift the status quo.
This promotion for Campaign’s Inspiring Women Awards is uninspiring and unworthy of awards. It appears to be stereotypical stock imagery too.
Despite that, the event will probably draw plenty of entrants seeking performative prizes, as well as generate profit for the publication.
