Advertising Forum

Re: RE: RE: Is the IPA right to attack the ad industry for white, male and middle class bias?

Rosemary Anaba — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:03:49 GMT

Hello everybody,

This post seems to have gotten quite a few respnses! As professionals working in advertising would you advise a thirsty and determined student desperate to break into advertising to possibly look elsewhere as ethnicity might hold her back?

Re: RE: RE: Is the IPA right to attack the ad industry for white, male and middle class bias?

Rick — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 13:10:26 GMT

Will you get better insight from a black account planner? Or by researching black audiences?

Are some people more creative because of their sex or skin colour?

Is a man incapable of writing ads for Dove? Can a woman never win an award for Yorkie?

I don't see why people working in advertising need to be more respresentative of anything.

Re: RE: RE: Is the IPA right to attack the ad industry for white, male and middle class bias?

A J — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:44:42 GMT

There's 15 people in my dept.

Of those, 10 are women and 4 are, for want of a better term, 'non-white'.

Seems reasonably balanced to me.

Re: RE: RE: Is the IPA right to attack the ad industry for white, male and middle class bias?

Clairee — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 12:58:18 GMT

i would have to agree (sorry to afew previous posters). The majority of people who i deal with are white and male (maybe 60%)

RE: RE: Is the IPA right to attack the ad industry for white, male and middle class bias?

Johnny Watters — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:36:23 GMT

As a one legged, albino, red headed, gay, Lebanese, transsexual living in the UK, I'm looking forward to recieving my job offer from BBH.

On a more serious note, I'm sitting at my desk at my (arguably quite small) agency right now and I can count seven different ethnicities and a fairly even split of men and women. So I'm not sure if I understand what the IPA are banging on about.

Bollocks, is correct.

RE: RE: RE: Is the IPA right to attack the ad industry for white, male and middle class bias?

Johnny Watters — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:24:28 GMT

Right on sister!

RE: Is the IPA right to attack the ad industry for white, male and middle class bias?

Tikus Besar — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:41:18 GMT

I do not understand the problem. In Indonesia, 99% of everyone is Indonesian, so Indonesian nationals get most of the jobs. Some positions are filled by expats, generally because they are foisted on the country by an international agency group OR the expat knows more in a specialised topic or has the standing in a country due to experience and/or is accepted more readily by clients. I suppose if it were Ghana, most people would be Ghanians.

If some groups do not want to go into advertising or dentistry or be airline pilots or oncologists for that matter, why must you have exact percentages of that group in everything? Will you have to force some groups into a business? Because there are 0.479% of one legged albino redheaded gay Lebanese in the UK, does that mean you must recruit that exact figure whether they are interested or not? What about white people working in jerk chicken outlets- not many there, are there?

What absolute bollocks.

Why doesn't the IPA do anything useful for a change? Oh, I forgot, it can't, it's in the statutes.

RE: Is the IPA right to attack the ad industry for white, male and middle class bias?

Julian Ashley — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:10:05 GMT

RE: Is the IPA right to attack the ad industry for white, male and middle class bias?

Janet Belmot — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:36:20 GMT

Sarad - I totally agree. If you look at the latest IKEA campaigns, they are ALL about not just decorating in neutral colours to maximise profit.

So the conclusion = the advertising is already doing it but the advertisers aren't.

The IPA should practice what they preach.

Saad Saraf — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:23:26 GMT

Funny how the IPA is attacking the industry for being white , male and middle class yet their council is White, Male and Middle Class.

Should't the IPA start to put their house in order before preaching to others?

RE: Is the IPA right to attack the ad industry for white, male and middle class bias?

voitek kowalik — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 15:27:39 GMT

i was once told that if one wants to be a planner in uk an english heritage is a must.

it's partly true because only somebody who has grown up here has truly authentic insight into uk's nation. but as times changed, this nation became more diversified... so now there is a need for indian, chinese, australian and eastern european planners here.

i just dont believe that english planner can plot a successful strategy aimed at e.g. indians or poles...

RE: Is the IPA right to attack the ad industry for white, male and middle class bias?

Darian Watts — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 23:42:52 GMT

John: "I heard they were planning to set the next series of Life on Mars in an ad agency in the 80's."Gary: "Really?"John: "But then it was pointed out no one would know the difference."(That's a joke doing the rounds at the moment but says a lot.)

RE: Is the IPA right to attack the ad industry for white, male and middle class bias?

Sam Ismail — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:13:00 GMT

So let me get this straight..it took someone of an ethnic minority (on secondment no less) to write a report about the lack of ethnic minorities in the ad industry? You mean the all powerful, all-knowing IPA didn't see this as a problem before?

oh. the. irony.

RE: Is the IPA right to attack the ad industry for white, male and middle class bias?

Paul Ashby — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:21:56 GMT

The Advertising Old Guard, best represented by the IPA, is
miffed that there dare be even the hint of criticism against advertising.

Perhaps this very post represents the duality of thinking that goes on within the IPA, by the very subject they are addressing.

The very structure of the IPA is practically 100% White, Male and Middle class!

The tone and even the content of so much of the verbiage that emanates from the IPA and its beloved Web site represents the dreams of a white, male and middle class structure!

All this excitement about advertising and its benefits is going to be repaid (if it hasn’t already) in the devalued currency of disappointment.

The IPA certainly cannot do anything about the rejection of advertising by a more sophisticated and savvy population.

Likewise the IPA cannot much longer ignore all the evidence, emerging on almost a daily basis, that the huge amounts of clutter is substantially reducing what little effectiveness advertising may have had.

What the IPA can do however, is to acknowledge that there are far far better ways of communicating with the customer. Please note the use of the word communicating!

RE: Is the IPA right to attack the ad industry for white, male and middle class bias?

Vernon Molestrangler — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:50:41 GMT