Like the legendary DJ Deadmau5, our anonymous advertiser Adnonamau5 dons a mask to perform. This issue he dropped by the Rockstar CMO penthouse and laughs – Diversity in the ad-land? Nah – we’re quite alwight, old chum.


In this awesome issue of Rockstar CMO, the Green Room question is about diversity. In the advertising world, seriously?? I laughed so much I almost crapped myself.

I’ve been in the ad world for quite a while now and what I can say about the industry, especially in the UK, is it’s the whitest of white and about as diverse as a neo-Nazi rally! Too harsh? Maybe, but not that far from the truth.

First, let’s look at racial mix. In my experience in the UK it’s 99.99999% white. It’s so uniform a Six Sigma project would hold it up as a success. OK, that may be a little bit of a lie, but let me point you in the direction of an article posted at the start of this year by Campaign magazine.

In the UK the population of the C-suite in 2018 that was classed as white was 94.5% (ok not quite the 99.99999% I suggested but close), heads of department 90.6%, other staff 90.2%, and so on.

It’s incredible – especially given that the United Kingdom has been a racially diverse country for a hell of a long time (not forgetting the Empire it once controlled).

But it’s not all about race. What about gender? Well the survey says… to Brucey … at the C-suite it’s still two-thirds male and one-third female. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but haven’t women, like, been around for a while?! Why the hell is this so imbalanced? And that goes for salaries too… I don’t get it.

It’s no surprise that the BAME community is so underrepresented in advertising “…just 7% of ads positioned people from the BAME community as the sole, or main protagonist.” The Drum

But you know what, it’s what I always thought, the ad industry is an old school tie network for the boys club and for men not clever enough to get a proper job, and yes that includes me.


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