Adweek asked a predominately White group of advertising industry VIPs, “If You Could Pick Only One, Would You Hire Don, Peggy or Joan?” Imagine if the same people were asked, “If You Could Pick Only One, Would You Hire Dawn, Shirley or Hollis?” They would undoubtedly choose Don, Peggy or Joan. Or Roger. Or Pete. Or Ken. Or Harry. Or Megan. Or Betty. Or Sally as an intern. Then they’d give Glen a shot. And eventually they’d even offer positions to the deceased Bert and Lane before considering minorities.
What makes me sad about this is that if you know any of the people interviewed, every single one of them just chose the character they think they're most like, or most want to be like, personally.
ReplyDeleteAll they did was pretend-hire a version of themselves.
Ultimately I think that's why there's so few black professionals in advertising. The people who do have decision making power, simply choose to hire the person most like them. The candidate who personally makes them feel most comfortable or who they aspire to be like.
They do it when they're choosing to hire fictional characters, they sure as hell do it in real life too.
Especially in a closed circle, tightly knitted hiring process. Too much nepotism. 9/10 they will not choose the black guy or minority. Its never about talent. People in the upper management levels in advertising industry only want to work with people that look like and behave like themselves. Token hiring only happens when things look really bad. If they bring a minority in its usually the role of mailroom,front desk, or internship. But if your talking about seeing a black guy in a top level position or running a creative department, its not happening anytime soon. They are not comfortable with that.
ReplyDeleteRacism is praised while diversity is shunned in the advertising industry. The deeper you dig into the problem the more is revealed on who these people with hiring authority want to hire. These people have been pretending for decades to be friends of diveristy. Mullen for example is bleached white when it comes to diversity, the writer of the article runs that agency. Walk into his agency and see what Im talking about.