Don't miss ADWEEK House at Cannes, June 16-19. Join us as we celebrate our 45th anniversary and explore the industry's now and next. RSVP.
In the 1960s and ‘70s, American football—along with the country at large—underwent a period of desegregation. It’s no surprise then that within the sport, racial stacking systematically worked to keep Black players limited to certain positions. The quarterback was considered to be a strategic “thinking” position, and it was believed that Black players weren’t smart enough to run the team.
So why does decades-old sports history matter?
In short, Black creative directors today are reliving this moment. In the ad agency world, the quarterback is the creative director. Black creatives are fighting an uphill battle against negative stereotypes on many fronts. And one in particular is a hurdle we’re not talking about enough: awards and juries.
The entire advertising industry has been busy focusing on promises of diversity, equity and inclusion by producing more data designed to convince us of their commitment. A few hires have also been added. But it truly surprises me that we’ve heard so little from award shows. Many of them, with the exception of a few, have been pretty silent.
Here’s the thing: You want to get into senior leadership positions within an advertising agency? Win awards. Lots of them. Show me a chief creative officer that works within a holding agency that does not have an award—or multiple awards. You won’t find one. You know why? Because agencies hire creatives who do award winning work. Awards matter.
But many people of color are fighting just for the chance to be brought onto award-worthy business opportunities and not acting as window dressing for pitches. So when work is worthy enough to make it to the cutting room floor of a jury room, imagine the shock of hearing one of your fellow creative jurors say, “I voted this [campaign] out because I don’t get the culture and, quite frankly, it doesn’t affect me.”
If your jury doesn’t understand the fundamentals of the Black experience or Black culture, that jury is doing a disservice to the work.
I digested this juror’s statement calmly to refrain from saying something I didn’t want to say while the remainder of the group was silent. I was the first to speak, and when I did, I felt the need to explain the significance of this campaign and why it was critical to the Black community. The importance of how the message was delivered and where it was delivered would make sense to any Black person that viewed it.
That’s an important point. This juror did not address the quality, effectiveness or other merits of this particular creative work we were tasked with reviewing. This industry leader admitted he didn’t understand the context of the work. Rather than excuse himself for being unable to judge its value, he rejected it because it didn’t fit his narrow lens.
You wouldn’t ask someone who admittedly doesn’t get classical music to review an opera, right? An opera-averse person’s critique would be considered automatically invalid due to their stated bias. But in the case of a creative awards panel, the biased view won out.
The work being discussed was powerful, impactful and could save Black lives. I had to literally fight tooth and nail to get a handful of the members of this jury to understand the gravity of what this campaign was doing. But it nearly missed the chance to be awarded, much less debated. Sadly, I was unable to attend another debate with this jury on a similar campaign with equal importance to the Black community, and unsurprisingly, it went without being awarded.
The job of a creative director is to be the ultimate, most direct consumer representative. To be successful, the creative director needs to be able to sit within the shoes of multiple consumers for multiple brands. Often, those groups of individuals do not look like a traditional ad industry leader who holds the power to shape the competition for awards.
If your jury doesn’t understand the fundamentals of the Black experience or Black culture, that jury is doing a disservice to the work. Award shows need to be accountable for recognizing and rectifying jury room equity, and it is up to us as jurors in the room to ask if our unconscious (or conscious) biases are affecting how we view the work.
When you prevent POCs from being awarded for real meaningful work—and not the superficial “jumping on the bandwagon” advertising—you are holding POC back from career opportunities. And you’re holding back powerful work that resonates with communities that may not be your own.
We Black creatives want to sit at the same tables as everyone else. We want to be able to make the same business decisions that everyone else makes. We want the same pay as everyone else. We want to represent Black consumers.
This past year we kicked, screamed, cried and signed petitions. The end result was access to data about insights we already knew, black squares and promises that have yet to fully come to fruition. We applaud the few successes we’ve seen, but please don’t forget about the work we still need to do—from the jury room to the board room and well beyond.
This awards season, you can make a direct impact on someone’s career. As we head into the awards season of 2021, I ask jurors and awards shows to be thoughtful and considerate of the work you are reviewing and give diverse cultures the opportunity it deserves.
