Cannes Lions 2015 pushes the diversity agenda
It was more than ironic to return from a Cannes Lions festival where the diversity agenda was the highest it’s ever been to be greeted by the news that Facebook’s workforce is still mostly white and male.
It’s easy to be glib about diversity in our industry and the increasing focus on it. However, when one of its leading players remains so far behind, it’s clear the issue burns brightly.
Today, over two thirds of Facebook’s employees are male, down just a paltry 1% on the previous year. With the number of white employees having fallen just 2%, it’s clear one of the industry’s most important companies is far from being a poster child for diversity.
Diversity isn’t about lip service. It’s not about box ticking. As Unruly founder Sarah Wood pointed out at a panel at Cannes on the gender gap in the global creative tech sector, “diversity equals innovation, profit and revenue”.
In the inaugural year of the Glass Lion, diversity was a prominent theme throughout the festival. From the huge success of Proctor & Gamble Always's #LikeAGirl campaign to Underarmour’s I Will What I Want film of Giselle hitting a punching bag to a background of Twitter insults, it found its way into this year’s big winners.
It wasn’t far from the conference stage either. This wasn’t just within dedicated panel’s such as Wood’s. P&G’s chief brand officer Marc Pritchard too the chance of another session to discuss the importance of diversity in creative teams in avoiding “stereotyping”.
“It’s about making connections and the best way to do that is though diversity; be it gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. Diversity is where the magic happens,” he said.
The aim of the Glass Lion is to play a crucial role in generating debate on driving diversity within the industry. Launching the Lion at the festival, jury president Cindy Gallop rallied the industry in her usual gloriously bombastic style to “take a good hard look at your creative team, your agency and ask yourself, would you award yourself a Glass Lion!”
The Drum plans to continue its focus on diversity, building on its successful Girl Guides series of interviews with leading female talent.
A focus which saw the launch during last week’s Cannes Lion festival of a report from The Drum in association with Critical Mass - The Female Perspective: A Vision for Change – which we hope will add to the industry debate around this issue.
The report is available to download here.