Diversity in the Ad Industry

Ad Age’s 2016 Agency A-List

There is a growing realization that Ad agencies are facing a diversity problem, especially looking at last week’s AdAge A-list. However, It’s unfortunately a multi-layered problem that defies easy solutions.

We must start by looking at the country we live in today, approximately 40 percent of the population currently belongs to a racial or ethnic minority group. The Hispanic population in US is 55.4 million this year representing roughly 17% and the African Americans are the second largest ethnic group in US with almost 20 million(also not represented in A-List). But let’s put race aside and just focus on the gender diversity in the Ad-industry, the so called A-list had only one female Executive listed as an A-lister. Female population of United States is 157.0 million according to the 2012 Census.

That to me is the most revealing, as a minority and a father of two girls I might be slightly biased but are you telling me that for every 9 man there is one woman who is able to match the men on skills & wits & creativity? These people are the crème de la crème of the industry and people look up to them as the best of the best but there is only one woman represented?What kind of message are we sending to the rest of the industry?

Idris Elba addressed the British parliament about diversity recently and said ”You see talents is all over but opportunity is not.”

We know the Ad industry is full of great talent but do we give them equal opportunity and support to help them grow and blossom into the next generation of A-listers. This is as much of a responsibility as a must for the survival and credibility of this industry.

My suggestion is to identify the talent, inform them about the opportunity and educate them on how to become the leaders of tomorrow...