AWARD chairman Mark Harricks calls out to female creatives to apply for the AWARD council
AWARD has a big agenda for the next 2 years. AWARD chairman Mark Harricks is putting a call out to female creatives to register their interest in getting a spot on the AWARD council.
Diversity in attitudes, thinking and perspectives is the lifeblood for commercial creativity.
It’s why Bill Bernbach put art directors with writers. Yet creative departments across Australasia are full of Young, Middle-Class, Inner-city, Anglo-Australian, Males.
Currently female creatives make up only 26% of all creatives and only 13% of female creatives are promoted into creative director roles.
We need to do something about this and we need to start with the AWARD Council. It is pivotal in shaping the strategy and making it happen.
Currently on the council we have myself as chair, Wilf Sweetland as vice-chair, Ian Fowler, Tom Uglow, Christian Finucane, Chris Gillespie, Joe Hawkins and Peter Ogden.
Yes, no women.
To tackle this challenge we need a diverse, proactive group of creative leaders who can help shape what we want our industry to be, and to do this, we’re adopting an open, transparent and inclusive process for the formation and ongoing renewal of Council Members.
For now, we would like to invite female creatives to apply if they are interested in being part of the AWARD Council. If you know someone or you yourself are interested please refer to the Council makeup and process below.
APPLICATION PROCESS
• You need to be a current AWARD member
• Send in your name, company and email address
• Provide 100 words or less, on why you would like to join the committee and what you think you bring
• Get a sponsor who is a senior AWARD member to second your nomination and provide a reference for you with their name and contact detail
• Send applications to AWARD at genevieve@communicationscouncil.org.au by Thursday 12 June
COUNCIL DETAILS
Composition of Council
Diverse representation of: agencies, companies; experience, skills, creative backgrounds; gender, background, tenure
Selection Criteria
• Creative credentials – a diversity of skills and thinking, person might be from agency, design, production, music, digital, fashion, architecture, photography or media backgrounds.
• Commitment – demonstrate commitment and passion for the industry
Individual Commitment
• Attend meetings, approximately 6-8 a year and do some AWARD work in between.
• Be available for a term of up to 3 years
• Champion or participate in one key AWARD initiative in a year.
Mark Harricks
AWARD Chairman
13 Comments
Brilliant initiative.
Well done Mark, a good initiative. Over the years Australian creative has been enriched and blessed with a number of top creatives who just happen to be female. To name a few, starting with the trail blazer, Jacquie Huie, followed by Sarah Barclay, Carolyn Diamond and currently Rebecca Curasco. They are just some I can pull out of the memory bank and I’m sure there are many more. Here is the opportunity so go for it.
Well done.
The gender balance in creative departments has always baffled me, and I think suggests something more than simply females not getting an “equal” opportunity. I reckon advertising, at least the creative side of the business is one area of working life where talent and the quality of ideas is what rules above all else. Yes, there are exceptions, and yes there is favouritism within agencies, but I don’t think that has got anything to do with whether you are male or female.
What level creative do you need to be?
Sure, you put out the call for more females – but how about the other people left out according to your ‘Young, Middle-Class, Inner-city, Anglo-Australian, Males.’
How about putting out a call for the elderly and those of asian, middle-eastern or of aboriginal descent as well if you’re going to be getting all tokenistic about it…
Success in a creative departments has little do with talent and the quality of ideas and a whole lot to do with your ability to play politics and network ‘up’.
Women do not play this game as well as men.
Women do not self promote like men either. And they are less likely to be interested in self serving awards and more interesting in making campaigns which serve their clients sales figures and their bottom lines. Many MD’s hire creatives [ esp CD’s ] based on the amount of awards they have won, not on their ability to grow an agency or make it profitable- A mystery ? Or just plain bad business ?
Success in a creative department has little do with talent and the quality of ideas and a whole lot to do with your ability to play politics and network ‘up’.
Women do not play this game as well as men.
Women do not self promote like men either. And they are less likely to be interested in self serving awards and more interesting in making campaigns which serve their clients sales figures and their bottom lines. Many MD’s hire creatives [ esp CD’s ] based on the amount of awards they have won, not on their ability to grow an agency or make it profitable- A mystery ? Or just plain bad business ?
Excuse me, Mr Well Hold On. We women are about half of the population.
We buy things. And about 80% of my clients are women.
They notice when their agency rocks up time after time with no women.
It’s not tokenism, it’s called getting the balance right.
So don’t compare women to minority groups because we’re not, we shouldn’t be – and it makes you look ignorant.
And let’s face facts: it’s not that hard to be a slightly OK creative and be paid better than most of your friends. Everyone knows that. There’s only a handful of true creative guns in this country. Everyone else is making up the numbers and those numbers are overwhelming – men.
If the creative council has to put a call out for women to even APPLY – well that screams of tokenism. Surely the 26% of women who are currently in creative departments should know about this council and already have an active interest in it.
This hasn’t been a male creative conspiracy you know. This call for women is happening precisely because the women in creative departments so far haven’t bothered to get involved. They have had exactly the same opportunity as the men who are currently on the council, but they simply haven’t gotten off their arse. Getting the balance right has got nothing to do with it if the 26% of people in the creative department who ‘aren’t a minority group’ don’t even step up to the start line.
Well said ‘Oh here we go again’.
This a a business problem.
Not a creative problem.
Our industries CEO’s & MD’s need to wake up and smell the opportunity.
Hold on, Hold-On.
Women know about AWARD.
We know it’s the industry body that is meant to represent us.
But when you look at who runs it – and let’s face it, when you look at the photos in the AWARD lunches and the AWARD parties – year after year, it’s men. (Kudos to them too – they’re great blokes, sure – but the absence of women is notable.)
After a while, you get the message that if your representative body doesn’t look anything like you, then maybe you shouldn’t be here at all. And so you don’t apply to be on the council. Or, as you put it, ‘get off your arse.’
Anyway, I think this a brilliant idea. We need to have this conversation as an industry – badly.
@here here you are totally correct.
Look at every creative department in Australian agencies and 99% of chances are that it will be a bloke in the top position. Put there by another bloke in a similar position. Because that’s the way it goes.
Because women in creative departments don’t seem to play the game the same as the guys, we see and do things differently… I daresay with a lot more pragmatism, and a lot less bullshit and chest beating. That shouldn’t mean we can’t get the big roles.
What you say about the Industry lunches etc is also true.
The same white guys with beards as far as the eye can see and it can feel
very exclusive at times.
It shouldn’t be a male vs female issue as I believe everybody should be judged on their ability and talent. But that’s not necessarily what’s happening in the agency world. And it needs to be fixed soon, as most clients are talking to a target market of women 35 to 52, soon to be even older, and I’m not sure the work is reflecting that at all.