Adweek reported on a global survey—being conducted by the World Federation of Advertisers and bankrolled by a variety of diversity-averse organizations (including Adweek)—that will allegedly measure DEI progress in Adland.
Is it really necessary to take a survey? The holding companies shared numbers to expose the obvious; that is, the industry is mired in exclusivity and plagued by systemic racism.
Another outrageous element in the scenario involves participants volunteering to complete an anonymous, 15-minute questionnaire. Um, Adland has already demonstrated an unwillingness for self-regulation, as well as a propensity for cultural cluelessness. The industry consistently shows a strong inclination to deliberately conceal the truth in such matters too. In short, any survey results will be useless at best and bullshit at least.
The WFA chief executive said, “What gets measured gets managed.” Okay, but false and fuzzy measurements only manage to perpetuate deception, fuel bias, and fortify discrimination.
Has DEI in Global Marketing Improved? WFA Launches Census to Find Out
The global survey will measure whether advertising and marketing workplaces are becoming more diverse, equitable and inclusive
By Brittaney Kiefer
The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) is calling on marketing and advertising professionals around the world to participate in its second census measuring the state of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) across the industry.
It is the most comprehensive survey focused on DEI in global marketing, covering 33 markets worldwide and supported by 10 organizations, including Adweek, VoxComm, Kantar, Cannes Lions and Effie Worldwide. Leading companies such as Bayer, BP, Danone, Diageo, The Estée Lauder Companies, Kraft Heinz, Reckitt and WPP are also supporting the effort.
The WFA’s Global DEI Census will be open for responses between March 15 and April 15. Professionals from across the marketing ecosystem—including brands, agencies, media, ad tech and platforms—can participate by completing an anonymous, 15-minute questionnaire. The questions cover respondents’ demographic profiles, including race, ethnicity, religion and age, their views on DEI in the industry and their experiences at work.
WFA will release results from the census in June 2023 to show any progress made in DEI, monitor people’s sense of belonging in their workplaces and identify negative behaviors and areas that need improvement.
The census will be adapted across local markets for legal and cultural reasons. In the U.K., the Advertising Association, IPA and ISBA are overseeing the All In Census, which is running concurrently with WFA’s initiative.
The inaugural WFA Global DEI Census ran in 2021 and covered 27 markets. It found that 1 in 7 professionals said they would likely leave their company and the industry because of a lack of diversity and inclusion.
The 2021 census also identified that the most common forms of discrimination were experienced on the basis of gender, age and caregiving responsibilities (those looking after the young, elderly or sick), as well as on the basis of race, ethnicity and disability.
Since those findings, the WFA has published a Charter for Change that outlines how global organizations can take concrete steps to drive more diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces.
“What gets measured gets managed. Our industry is facing a well-documented talent crisis. Ensuring our industry is more diverse, equitable and inclusive will go a long way to addressing this challenge,” WFA chief executive Stephan Loerke said in a statement. “There are patently clear moral and business cases for why our industry must better reflect the diversity of consumer we all aim to reach. This is why this exercise is so critical.”
This is just part of the US ad market's recent push to bypass ethnic and racial diversity and exclusion issues in the United States and glom onto global diversity success instead.
ReplyDeleteThey're playing a shell game where they ignore their lack of progress (or intent, really) with hiring, promoting or contracting Black or brown people in America and instead shift the conversation and expenditures towards international efforts.
The result of this survey will be fanfare and press releases about how much individual brands and ad agencies will now commit to spending with, say, women around the world or the disabled. Well intentioned on paper, but the actual result will be white women in Australia, the UK, South Africa, etc. will get a surge of help, or white disabled men and women in those same places. Or white LGBTQ individuals or white parolees or white whatever, wherever.
If there is indeed anyone black or brown who are helped, they'll come in secondary position after those primarily white groups, and before BIPOC in America.
The crumbs typically given to ethnically and racially diverse peoples in the US will magically turn into whole slices of pie when gifted overseas.