The difficult journey to making creative truly diverse and inclusive

shots recently featured a special showcase of LGBTQ+ directors working in the commercial space; a welcome move as we seek to drive diversity and inclusion in advertising and the creative industries.

D&I will improve creative content, and a brand’s investment in film content will work harder when D&I is fully embraced.

The reality is, though, that we are on a journey and there is still so much more to be done to fully embrace D&I, not just in the creative world but in the creative work that’s being produced. So much of the content I see still does not represent a truly diverse world.

I believe the creative sector needs to address how it works in order to be truly diverse and inclusive. And, let’s face it, D&I is an imperative. It’s not a nice to have, it’s a key business benefit. D&I will improve creative content, and a brand’s investment in film content will work harder when D&I is fully embraced.

Above: The Outvertising Awards looks to drive LGBTQ+ representation in advertising. 

I started running the Outvertising Awards four years ago as I wanted to drive LGBTQ+ representation. Part of my mission with the awards was to share learnings from brands that are doing it well. One of the critical learnings in having diverse and inclusive representation on screen is having true representation behind the camera. This means diverse teams right from the planning stage, through to creative, production, distribution and amplification.

One of the critical learnings in having diverse and inclusive representation on screen is having true representation behind the camera.

If you do not have diverse teams, then you can't authentically make diverse work. But we have to recognise that most creative agencies and studios will not have the right level of diversity for all projects. So, it’s critical to partner with organisations like Outvertising and the Diversity Standards Collective to get the right representation for all creative briefs. As a studio or agency, it's about having the checks and balances in place. You might have a director from one community, but then different representation in the script, in the casting, and so on. 

And, when it comes to the storytelling, it’s important to remember that you don’t know what you don’t know. Even if you think you have expert knowledge of a community, if you are not part of that community, your approach to storytelling may not be an authentic representation of it. In order to avoid unconscious bias, you have to actively involve the community you are looking to portray. Equally, you need to take actions so you don’t unintentionally discriminate. Removing names and gender when selecting creative talent is a way of avoiding this. 

Above: Mastercard's True Name tells the story of "a service that empowers people and changes lives with a seemingly simple switch".

Inevitably quite a lot of video and social based content is hung around key moments, so you need to get those right. You need to work with the relevant communities to get the right storytelling and representation. For example, with Trans Awareness Day, we always reach out to the trans community either to find a creator from that community to develop the content or to check through the visuals and the storytelling. 

We’ve seen many mistakes over the years with brands naively associating themselves with communities and causes in order to make their products more attractive.

And it’s not about just putting people from a community in a film or an ad in order to target that community. We’ve seen many mistakes over the years with brands naively associating themselves with communities and causes in order to make their products more attractive. Embracing diverse creative talent and creative diverse work is about alignment of values. More consumers – especially younger ones – are looking for brands that align with their values. As creatives, I believe we have a duty to responsibly portray the world we want to live in for everybody to see.

Since the launch of the Outvertising Awards, we have seen a step change in both the volume of work featuring the LGBTQ+ community and lifestyles and, importantly, the quality of the work. Tokenistic nods to the LGBTQ+ community or over-sexualisation are constant watch-outs for the Outvertising jury. We are looking to recognise authentic storytelling that represents different lifestyles and that ‘usualise’ the LGBTQ+ community.