In San Francisco, Agencies Confront Their Failed Promise of Racial Diversity

San Francisco's creative agencies pride themselves on the progress they've made in terms of gender balance and LGBTQ inclusion, but the agency experience is far different for Black agency professionals in the city. From the high cost of living and gentrification to the tendency to recruit through traditional talent pipelines rather than look actively in more diverse Bay Area communities, talent of color and inclusivity advocates tell Adweek San Francisco faces a confluence of many issues that limit possibilities for minority talent in creative industries. Those who do find agency opportunities say they often face microaggressions and unconscious bias in the workplace. I don’t think we’ve done enough.Jeff Goodby, co-founder, Goodby Silverstein & Partners As 2020 has continued, since the deaths of Black Americans George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others, to be a moment of truth and reckoning for racially homogeneous industries like advertising, some leaders in the San Francisco agency scene have become more self-aware and vocal about the need for change. "I don’t think we’ve done enough," says Goodby Silverstein & Partners co-founder Jeff Goodby. Several agencies are attempting to address the issue with expanded recruitment efforts in areas such as Oakland and an ongoing evaluation of workplace inclusivity, but diversity advocates and Black employees in the city tell Adweek progress remains hampered by the lack of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the city's tech-focused industries. "The reason a lot of issues with DEI are amplified [in the Bay Area] is that it's very heavily male-populated and white," says Cheryl Ingram, founder and CEO of DEI consultancy Inclusology. "The prevalence of microaggressions, the prevalence of unconscious bias—all of those things do tend to be amplified in the Bay Area because of the lack of visible diversity and people in powerful positions." Ingram called San Francisco "one of the most prevalent places" for "gentrification and systemic oppression." One result, she said, is that minority talents who aspire to work in the ad industry are often too underpaid to afford living in San Francisco. While the average cost of rent in San Francisco has declined during the Covid-19 pandemic, rent costs in less expensive areas of the city have actually increased year over year, according to news site SFGate. While some agency executives admit they have been too sluggish, as individual agencies and as an industry, to address the ongoing lack of racial equality, skepticism lingers among minority talents who say they've had little cause for hope that the situation will improve anytime soon. Unwelcoming environments Adweek spoke with four advertising professionals of color who shared their experiences with microaggressions, unconscious bias and systemic racism, which they say are commonplace at San Francisco agencies. These sources spoke to Adweek on the condition of anonymity, with some citing fear of retaliation or firing. One creative described experiences at various San Francisco shops with subtle racism and unwelcoming work environments, including one instance when a building manager threatened to call the police on him when he exited the restroom—despite the two having met before. I think a lot of it is based in white flight and white fragility. Oakland is right across the bridge, but you don't go into those spaces in order to recruit.Cheryl Ingram, founder and CEO, Inclusology Another employee at a San Francisco agency recounted a story about a white agency founder using the N-word at a company event and justifying his use of the word by saying: "It’s OK. I have Black friends." That ad professional also described a white senior art director at a San Francisco agency repeatedly using the words "protester," "rioter" and "looter" interchangeably and an executive creative director joking that a window brand would have good business because of the "riots" in the city. Such insensitivities spilled over into the public eye earlier this year, when Venables Bell & Partners CCO Will McGinness apologized for posting an Instagram photo of himself in digital blackface. Looking across the Bay One issue commonly cited by the Black professionals Adweek spoke to is that agencies seem unwilling to recruit diverse talent and often limit their search to San Francisco and expensive portfolio schools while ignoring historically more diverse areas such as Oakland, just seven minutes away. "I think a lot of it is based in white flight and white fragility," Ingram said. "Oakland is right across the bridge, but you don't go into those spaces in order to recruit talented [creatives] because of the idea of value that exists within those areas." She added that there was an unconscious bias against considering such talent. We have to look beyond the traditional talent pipelines because those pipelines are part of a biased system.Andy Berkenfield, CEO, Duncan Channon GS&P director of talent Leslie Bee said the agency is addressing the need for more diversity with a program it introduced four years ago working in partnership with San Francisco public schools—and expanded to Oakland public schools in 2020, resulting in an Oakland high school student joining GS&P as an intern. "We have to look beyond the traditional talent pipelines because those pipelines are part of a biased system," Andy Berkenfield, CEO of San Francisco independent agency Duncan Channon, told Adweek. "It’s hard to process because we get very qualified talent out of that system, but it's part of a system built to benefit white people with privilege." A lack of inclusion When talent of color does get hired at agencies, Ingram says, they find themselves in a culture not built to accommodate them, are often faced with a lack of mentorship from people in leadership and feel their contributions undervalued or overlooked when it comes to promotions. Another San Francisco ad professional of color described Black creatives as often being limited to working on certain types of accounts and having their concerns, typically about culturally insensitive work, overlooked. "Some of those agencies haven't thought about the fact that when you are hiring someone to come into your space, to work and create diversity, you have to understand what that populations' challenges are in trying to exist and just survive in that community," Ingram says. Andy Berkenfield, CEO, Duncan Channon. Another ad professional in San Francisco describes experiencing a series of microaggressions from coworkers, including being told how professional their hair looked when straightened. After expressing their frustrations over what they saw as a lack of support for Black employees following the death of George Floyd in a call with leadership and voicing their feelings about unconscious bias at the agency, the employee said they and a coworker were asked to apologize to senior leaders on the call for being "too aggressive." The agency eventually allowed employees to select a day off for mental health over a week after Floyd's death and offered Juneteenth as a holiday, the employee said. While diversity and inclusion issues have received renewed attention across the industry, some remain skeptical it will result in real change. One anonymous source said they "hadn't seen anything real" come out of their agency's diversity committee in the past. And despite hiring an outside diversity and inclusion consultant, they remained pessimistic that there was any real commitment to change. A watershed moment Agency leaders acknowledge that real progress will require new solutions. "What we’ve been doing has not been producing the results we want," Berkenfield said. At Duncan Channon, new initiatives launched this year include an interdisciplinary DEI group to identify new ways of tackling the issues. Among their tasks is implementing formal systems to grow the agency's talent pipeline and expand its definition of qualified talent. The agency also instituted a survey to gauge how well it is doing at creating an inclusive environment and hired equity specialist Lori Watson as a consultant. Goodby said the issue was a priority for GS&P, which has publicly addressed racism through campaign work and even using its own building as a medium for the message. Director of talent Zach Canfield pointed to programs such as its Voices series, which provides an outlet for employees to have candid discussions around issues related to diversity and inclusion in the workplace, as well as employee resources groups. Bee added that most GS&P employees had gone through unconscious bias training. "I think it’s a watershed moment, and we won’t go back on this time," Goodby said. "It's not a city that has a welcoming profile, but your company can have a welcoming profile. You can be part of the solution, not part of the problem."