Another brilliant piece from a GUNNAS WRITING MASTERCLASS WRITER.
Dear Adland,
I believe that you would like me to fuck off and die.
Look, maybe not “die”, per se – but I certainly get the ‘you should fuck off’ message, loud and clear. But, I guess perhaps should have seen it coming. Given that it’s coming from an industry I’ve not just been in, but given my all to, for, well –over 20 years.
You see, I’m in advertising. I’m a Creative Director. Actually, while I’m talking about me – I’ll add this. I’m strategic. I’m multi-disciplinary. I’m award-winning. I have presented to the CEO’s of some of the biggest companies in Australia. And I’ve nailed it.
The thing is, a lot of Creative Directors have. But that’s where the similarities end.
Because the majority of Creative Directors are men.
Blokes.
Males.
Or, “you know – just one of the guys” as I’ve most recently heard.
Not me. I’m a woman. Yes, I am. A woman, one of only 3%, who had the audacity to crawl into a place that is very clearly reserved for a man.
And apparently when you get to that place that you’ve been working towards for 20 years, the industry’s response is to pull a couple of blokes in in your place, and shuffle you out the back door.
Delightful. Clearly it doesn’t matter that I’ve done the hard yards. I’ve worked my way through all the lofty titles of copywriter, senior copywriter, creative group head and creative director. Apparently, I hit the ceiling. I went as far as someone with ladybits could go.
Now – and I am desperately trying to be diplomatic here – this would be fine, if the consequences were just mine. But they’re not. I mentor a lot of young creatives, both male and female – and I encourage them all to continue, because, and I say this to them “the industry is fucking great and it needs them all”. Man, woman, gay, straight, amish, catholic, have-no-idea-but-still-scrabbling-for-a-belief-system. The industry needs to speak to an amazingly diverse society – and can only do so successfully if it is filled with the diverse voices to speak with. I really believe that by the time these young creatives reach the top – things will be better. So I want them to stay in it – and in the meantime, I’ll do whatever I can, and fight as hard as I can, to make it better.
While the laws of, well “lawland”, forbid me to talk about what exactly that entails, or the particular previous employer that I have been fighting – I will say this.
They may well believe that the opinion of a woman is worthless.
They may well believe that a female creative director can never be as good as the men.
They may well have kicked me to the curb and assumed that I’d shut the fuck up and crawl away.
They. Were. Wrong.
I have no idea how, yet.
But I will be heard from again.
Today I sat in a room with positive, inspirational, motivated, creative people.
I walked in and no one gave a shit about who I was or whose arse I had kissed.
I walked in and no one cared if I was man, woman or neither.
I walked in and no one, but no one, had heard defamatory things about me before hand.
I walked in and found a diverse group of people who gave, shared, laughed, cried and wanted everyone else in the room to kick arse – regardless of who they were or what genitals they had.
How fucking refreshing.
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