An Australian advertising publication is under fire for its “sexist” and “exclusionary” list of top creative directors in the advertising industry, which included just one woman.
Campaign Brief was established in 2002 as a news site to showcase and celebrate the best of Australia’s advertising and campaigning industry. Each year, it releases The Work report, including a list of the top creative directors.
In the 2024 edition released last week, the creative directors list sparked a huge amount of backlash, as out of the 30 creative directors listed, 29 were men and just one was a woman.
Dozens of people working in Australia’s advertising industry have taken to LinkedIn to share their outrage over the list, including CEO of Innocean Australia and Founder of Fck The Cupcakes, Jasmin Bedir.
In a video posted to LinkedIn on Monday, Bedir said she was waiting for agencies and the men on Campaign Brief’s list to “come out and say something”, but the silence encouraged her to speak up.
Bedir said she has heard from several individuals and agencies who say they are doing “all they can” to “empower women” – but only empowering women is not enough.
“That’s great – you need to be empowering women,” Bedir said, “but also, we need you to stand up against toxicity when we see it.”
“We also need you to stand up against open misogyny when we see it. Because internal support and invisible support doesn’t mean anything, because at the moment, visibly, we’re perpetuating the image that there’s no capable women in the industry bar one. And that is a problem.”
Bedir said she is concerned agencies are “talking out of the side of their mouths” in that they are telling women they support them, whilst still supporting publications that are “going against them”.
She also empathised with men who might “find it difficult to speak up”, but encouraged them to take steps at a time to actively and publicly support women in the industry.
“As for the men that find it difficult to speak up – I hear you, I feel you, and I think I understand why it is more complicated than we women hope it is. It definitely has more grey shades than the black and white dialogue that is going on at the moment,” Before said.
“You may worry what your boss thinks if you were saying something. You may not know what your agency leadership view is on the subject matter. You feel like you’re removing yourself out of your little industry circle if you do so. You feel like you are going against other men and this might be problematic for you, or you think this might be bad for your career.
“If it’s difficult to speak up, that’s ok, but you can do one thing: you could openly today discuss with your agency management whether you should actively still support something as misogynistic as this block… I think there’s plenty of amazing alternatives.”
Women’s Agenda has contacted Campaign Brief for comment.
‘It’s time to call bullsh*t on the boys club’
Bedir acknowledged that there are men in Australia’s advertising industry that have spoken up about misogyny – both in the past and in relation to the Campaign Brief drama.
Elsewhere on LinkedIn, Jim Ingrim, creative director at Thinkerbell and one of the leaders who made it on the Campaign Brief list, responded to the male-dominated list.
“There are not enough women working in creative roles in advertising, and frankly there never have been,” Ingrim called out the problems with the list.
“Imagine the outrage by men if an “industry” list of top Creative Directors (across three categories each containing 10 awardees) were ALL WOMEN except for one male,” Chappell wrote.
“And yet the silence from men is deafening.
“It’s time to call bullshit on the boys club that still exists in Australia’s advertising industry… It’s embarrassing, it’s sexist, it’s exclusionary and so out of touch with where society is and where our industry should be.”