Remember how I said in the last post that I had two responses (see how I give you credit for being a true and Constant Reader)? The thing that troubled me about Art & Copy was the thing that troubled my own career in advertising, and so profoundly affected (though I did not fully realize it as it was happening) my own aspirations: women were noticeably absent.
Phyllis Robinson and Mary Wells both went to work at Doyle Dane Bernbach back in the 1960s. Ms. Robinson was there from the start as Copy Chief, Mary Wells joined later, was successful, went elsewhere, was successful, etc. Wells made a wonderful and inspiring observation in the documentary – that advertising is theater, spectacle, meant to entertain and transform. Much of what she did went well beyond a headline and a nice photo – she transformed the businesses of her clients. They are both in the documentary.
But that is it – or almost. Liz Dolan, the former head of marketing at Nike, is interviewed, mainly to talk about how smart and intimidating Dan Weiden is. She’s right of course, he is both of those things. But where were the women who worked on the account? Where was Janet Champ? (To his credit, Dan Weiden did give her credit for the “If you let me play sports” work. Not that doing so was a hardship; after all, it was true.)
I wracked my brain trying to think of who they could have included from my gender. I failed. Even now, I am hard-pressed to think of a single top creative director at a top creative agency who is a woman. This is homework I’ll have to assign myself, but I want to put a small amount of perspective on this as well.
I haven’t been a copywriter, actively, for many years, so I might be forgiven for losing touch with women in the field. Still in the agency world’s orbit, I’ve been a planner and working closely with planners this whole time. And while I can name a few heads of planning who are women, there are few I count as superstars. Ben Malbon, Russell Davies, Gareth Kay, Robin Hafitz, Domenico Vitale, Paul Woolmington, Dan Cherry, Merry Baskin, are on that list. But consider that list for a moment – I listed 5 Brits, two women, and one African-American. It’s not that they aren’t out there, it’s that they struggle to be heard. And seen, for that matter.
There are two who get press and recognition from time to time: Natasha Jakubowski at Anomaly, and Katie Harrison at BBH. Both are Brits. There is a special irony here, of course, given that as the story goes, planning came to the US from the UK when Jane Newman was hired by Chiat/Day. She later co-founded Merkley Newman Harty. In her wake, a great many women have been hired and trained as planners, but fewer and fewer seem to rise to her stature.
[If you're wondering why I note the national origin of Brits, it's that things are a bit different, culturally, in the ad business in the UK versus the US. Of course Americans tend to think an English accent bestows 10 extra IQ points on the speaker, but it's more that account planning is more entrenched, more strategic, and more creative in the UK, generally, than it has been here. When a planner comes from the UK, they come to be senior.]
The other thing I’d note here is that, I am (ahem) 33 years old, and have been in this business more than 10 years. Russell and Robin and Merry and Paul have been names in this business for as long as I can remember. So who are the smart strategists from my age cohort? They don’t come from ‘traditional’ planning – but then neither do I. To the list, I would have to add Noah Brier and Faris Yakob, who are, I am happy to say, friends and colleagues. But they’re also dudes, and Faris is British. Actually, ask Faris about it sometime – Faris is everything, he’s the most fantastic mutt I’ve met in some time.
But, again, I ask, where all the ladies at?
It’s not just advertising
In fairness, this is not limited to the ad game. Watch the documentary Helvetica; the only woman designer interviewed is Paula Scher, who famously hates that typeface, and equates it with war and corruption and corporatism. She’s inspiring and talented and wonderful, but she’s a boomer and the only woman to be interviewed in the whole 90 minutes. (Doug Pray outdid this flick three-fold, so good on ‘im.) There are no young women designers on the rise? There are no contemporaries to Scher? There are no generational equivalents to Wells and Robinson? I just find that so hard to believe.
Or watch The September Issue. Oh sure, you think, Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington run that show and they’re women! True, but watch for the scene where Wintour meets with her advertisers – most of the non-Vogue players at that table were men. Watch for the designers and photographers – still mostly men. And my favorite, watch for the meeting in which she presents the issue to the Conde Nast board – I’d need to go back and freeze-frame to be sure, but I’m almost certain that they’re all men. So even Anna Wintour, famous as the boss/dragon lady or ice queen, has bosses – and they don’t worry about scuffing their Jimmy Choos or how to wear fur for spring.
My point would be…?
Look, there are lots of women in advertising. Something like 60% of agency staff is female. It’s just that the female staff is more junior, and in more administrative or project management oriented departments. They are critical to the running of an agency, but they do not craft the art & copy, or guide the strategy of the business. Even lists of advertising ‘women to watch‘ are very often clients, not creatives or planners or agency heads (and female CMOs ≠ female ECDs). With so many women in the business, why aren’t there more in the sexy, powerful, famous roles?
I have a few hypotheses I’m going to throw out here, and I’ll try to stay on track to think more about them and do more research on them…
Oh, kidding. I think those are mostly crap!
So I clearly have some homework to do on these causes… But I guess my biggest question is less to society at large, or men as a group, but to each woman who writes little doo-dads, or draws on the back of everything, or takes amazing photos, or makes little videos, or teaches herself PHP… Where are you? We need you to show up. Being seen is the necessary precursor to being heard.
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