Some issues by no means change: range
Diversity and representation in the creative sector are very topical issues. However, if you take a trip through the CR archives, you will find that these are conversations that have been going on for decades. What raises the question: How far have we really got in the past 40 years?
Diversity: It is a word that creates passion just like Eyerolls. In some cases, it can be a powerful catalyst for significant changes; in others nothing more than a buzzword of the 21st century that is contained in press releases. Regardless of the term itself, the topic it deals with is one that has plagued the creative industry for a long time – the "pale, masculine and stale" formula that has thrived in the industry since its inception.
Although diversity has become much more of a focus lately – our coverage of the topic has increased significantly in recent years – the narrow population in the creative departments has sparked an intense debate for decades.
Adam Lury wrote back in 1990: “Most people in advertising were intellectual in the 1950s. Then ads reflected the idea of a good (white) middle-class Britain. Ads have gotten funnier, but not much has changed among them. "A few years later, Helen Jones declared the housewife's death, stressing that two kitchen-oriented ads were out of touch and those doing the work needed to catch up with modern times or simply hire more women in decision-making positions – a point that is known to this day.
An article by Helen Jones in May 1997 on the outdated attitudes of the advertising industry towards women
It's hardly a revelation that creative departments have traditionally been a testosterone-filled domain with a dynamic that one respondent in the 1997 IPA census described as "intensely male, very aggressive, and very uncooperative". The impact went beyond the agency's walls when women struggled to recruit in disciplines such as commercial photography, even though art, design, and photography courses at creative schools were almost balanced in the 1990s.
Creative Insight CR 40th birthday