Saturday, October 11, 2014

12141: Millennials—The New Minority…?

Adweek published a bunch of articles on Millennials. Advertising Age spotlighted the Nielsen Top 10 Ads Among Millennials. Seminars examining Millennials were plentiful at Advertising Week. Why, everybody’s crazy about Millennials.

However, whenever anyone starts a conversation about Millennials as adpeople, things get ugly fast. Criticisms include, “…the problem is with Millennials entering this industry with their ‘It’s all about me’ egos.” Agency executives refuse to accommodate Millennials in any way, shape or form. The generational differences in advertising agencies are filled with resentments and negativity.

This is yet another reason why diversity will never happen in the advertising industry. In short, the Old White Guys in charge refuse to share with anyone outside of their exclusive realm—even their White spouses, mistresses and assorted Caucasian female peers get shafted.

Millennials actually represent a scarier threat than other minority groups. For starters, many of them are White—especially the ones who are granted access into the field—despite the fact that the group overall is the most diverse generation in history. Second, Millennials will work for lower wages than Old White Guys, while often producing equal or better results. Third, unlike Old White Guys, most Millennials are not digitally disabled. And the list goes on.

Our industry leaders are arguably seeking to prevent and restrict the younger generation’s ability to succeed. In adland, Millennials are the new minority.

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