Sex sells…but at whose expense?

For those new to the advertising industry, the Broadcast Executive Society’s Christmas party was unbridled bacchanalia. The cacophony, the claustrophobic closeness of the Sheraton’s Long Bar, the hours spent cocktailing were all wondrous and joyful on one’s first visit. After a few years, the unseemly cracks began to show; walking into stairwells, I was confronted by sights best left undescribed, I saw careers unmade in a sloppy moment, and was endlessly groped in the guise of festive cheer. It was the media industry at its most Mad Men-esque, when genial madness devolved into more than one rumoured sexual assault. 

I’ve often said that a great many clients believed that I came as a value-added element to the package they’d just negotiated. That signing meant that I had pledged body and soul, that I “owed” them more than just a well-executed campaign and an excellent post. While the Canadian advertising industry has no statistics on sexual harassment, the British ad industry has delved into its seamy underbelly. “A survey of 3,500 advertising employees carried out by the #timeTo initiative found that 34% of women questioned had been harassed, the majority of them more than once. A quarter of the sample had been harassed six times or more. Among females aged 18 to 24 – in other words, women at the beginning of their careers – 20% had been harassed, most by more senior colleagues. Of those who reported their harassment, half were dissatisfied with the outcome; 83% had not reported it on the grounds that they didn’t trust the reporting system and were afraid of damaging their careers” (Source: The Guardian). Three months ago, I was chagrined to hear from a senior leader on the agency side that half of his female executive team had suffered harassment by their colleagues. 

Over the last year, I’ve been privileged to bear witness to two incredible, unfettered panel discussions that addressed racial discrimination and ageism in our industry. Much like these panels, I would like to bring the dark and ugly issue of sexual harassment into disinfecting sunlight. I hope you’ll join me in the new year when the AdClub honours another brave group who will share their experiences and speak to solutions.