Every so often a news story comes up which effortlessly demonstrates a frankly unfeasible number of the lessons we share in our Inclusion Workshops.
Enter the Heinz advertising department who, it's safe to say, have not covered themselves in glory this month. With two adverts in rapid succession being pulled amidst a massive backlash and accusations of racism, the great sauce-consuming public could be forgiven for wondering what on earth is going on in the creative meetings at Heinz.
The quick version is that, twice in the space of a week, Heinz has been accused of racism in its adverts. Firstly in the UK, where several commentators (including Nels Abbey in the Guardian) were painfully aware of the unhelpful reinforcing of the outdated stereotype of the absent Black Dad in a campaign which appeared at Tube Stations across London. Whilst not everyone agreed with this critique, the advert was withdrawn after just a few days.
In a spectacularly awful "Hold my beer" moment, Heinz's US marketing department had to withdraw another advert just days later. This one depicts a Black man with red sauce covering his lips, which feels horribly reminiscent of the old Minstrel blackface ads. There has been an enormous amount of debate about the two ads, with a number of different perspectives being aired, so buckle up for the inclusion lessons being writ large on a very public stage (/ billboard).
It can be hard to see things from others' perspectives - but that doesn't mean we stop trying.
Our perspectives will vary enormously depending on our life experiences. I'm absolutely certain that for large numbers of commuters who saw the ad on the tube in London, it won't have even registered for them. And if you are lucky enough to have never seen a stereotype like this about your life and experience, then you may not have even consciously noticed the ad. But we know we all do absorb these messages - as you'll see if you watch these videos from Procter and Gamble which play around with stereotypical representation and "widen the screen".
For people who are impacted by racist microaggressions every day, the sting of seeing what appears to be an outdated stereotype (as a member of our team put it: "that constant global depiction of Black dads as absent from their kids' lives") metres high on a wall might just be one sting too many. We talk a lot about the bubble of our life experiences and privileges in our workshops - it's a fact of life that we all see things differently depending on who we are, our backgrounds, heritage, skin colour, religion etc. So just because you aren't impacted by something, it doesn't mean it's not entirely reasonable and realistic that it's going to hurt a lot for someone else who is constantly seeing their life presented in this way. Which is why...
Representation REALLY matters
Only two years ago, Samsung was publicly slammed for an ad depicting a woman, running alone at night, wearing headphones (side note, if you don't understand why this is a problem, I am going to assume that you are a man, and advise you to go ask any woman in your life why this is inaccurate).
Tell me your whole marketing department are men, without telling me your whole marketing department are men
Amongst many of the criticisms levelled at Samsung was a tweet saying "Tell me your whole marketing department are men, without telling me your whole marketing department are men". It's eerily reminiscent of the vibe of the Heinz ads - with commentators wondering if there were any People of Colour involved in these conversations. Of course there may have been, but in both cases...
Psychological Safety is key.
If you don't have psychological safety in your organisation, then all the representation in the world won't make a difference. Effectively, if people in your organisation don't feel safe or comfortable to speak up when they see challenges like the ones raised through the Heinz and Samsung (and Dove - back in 2017) campaigns, then you will always miss the opportunity to fix something like this before it causes your business millions in wasted spending.
So far, so terrifying. So what can organisations do to avoid this in the future?
Slow down
Pausing to think about the perspectives you might be missing is absolutely invaluable. We hear time and time again that pace is a part of "high performance culture", and that's all well and good, but slowing down to think is absolutely critical. And we know that when organisations slow down and ask the right questions - "Who was this designed for/ with?"
"Who was missing from the conversation?"
beautiful things happen - for example, this ad from Virgin Media which showcases a wheelchair user and was widely praised for its accurate and positive representation - we'd be willing to bet that Virgin Media used these questions to get the beautiful and authentic result they achieved.
Educate your people in allyship
Understanding the meaning of being a great ally is absolutely critical for organisations to move themselves forwards. To do this, we all have a responsibility to educate ourselves about experiences which are different to our own. Only when we do this will we start to notice inequity around us.
Build psychologically safe working environments
Leaders have a huge part to play in ensuring that they create spaces where their people can share their perspectives. A great place to start is making sure that at every possible opportunity, we're emphasising the importance of bringing our real opinions and perspectives.
Play the long-game
Take the time to build a plan to create and sustain a truly inclusive and representative workplace. Time is key here, there are no "quick fixes", but working to build true representation at all levels of an organisation, and creating a safe working environment is the key to long term success. And at the very least, less controversy over your ad campaigns...
Are you ready to start your long-game? Why not get in touch and see how we can help? hello@anewnormal.co
댓글