The news of IPG continuing to prune its portfolio of White advertising agencies—as well as the Pfizer fiasco resulting in accounts and jobs shifting from IPG to Publicis Groupe—inspired a few additional thoughts.
There was a time when White advertising agencies declared notions like, “A company’s employees are its greatest asset and your people are your product,” and, “Your greatest assets come up and down the lift every day.”
Do such sentiments still apply in Adland?
Ad people’s jobs have never been guaranteed—or even secure—since losing an account typically prompted mass terminations. Yet now people may find themselves caught in a corporate merger and/or pruning that leads to workplace redundancies—and ultimately, to workforce reductions.
Additionally, White holding companies have created a commoditization of services and talent, whereby firms are generic, replaceable units, and people are indistinguishable, interchangeable drones.
In short, people are not assets; rather, they are simply asses. Plus, in hybrid and remote settings, they’re not coming up and down the lift every day; rather, they come online via electronic meeting platforms—often semi-anonymously with video off.
So, what’s the point?
If even White people are disrespected, discounted, and disregarded in Adland, how much worse can people of color expect to be treated?
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