Following up on diversity fun.

Holy ghost of Larry Tate. After Ken published his Ad Age piece on the recent diversity hearing, the usual suspects and excuses came out of the woodwork. (People were a lot cooler here—so far.) Typical responses ranged from the people complaining must not be good enough to get into an agency to racial quotas never work, blah, blah, blah.

It’s interesting to experience an event, see it get covered by the media, then be misconstrued by people who weren’t even there, then add in their own backward thinking agendas on the issue.

In fairness to the commission and the agencies regarding only two of 16 showing up, a little clarification. When it was asked that night why more weren’t there, it was made very clear by the panel that they weren’t officially invited, because it was thought their presence might possibly influence those in attendance, to the point nobody would’ve felt compelled to open up. (Reiterating my original point, that still doesn’t mean they were prevented from showing up either.) Subsequent comments from a few agencies to the commission indicate they may have felt their presence would have increased the tension.

I totally understand the intent of the commission’s thinking in that instance. Agencies though? Not so much.

Go. Listen. Talk. Hear the other side. Sure you hear a lot of anger or frustration. (Ken also has an Ad Age video clip up today with more on that here.) But don’t pretend it’s not there. You’re telling me agencies don’t have people who can hold their own in a meeting about issues directly related to their agency? Pitch $300 million dollar accounts but a room of creatives intimidates you? The absence achieved the opposite of the calming effect they hoped would happen by not showing.

Instead, resentment ensued, and still does.

The two that did show, Arnold and Saatchi? They weren’t heckled or abused. Far from it. Sure, there was some back and forth that got tense at times, but it didn’t devolve into a shouting match. Even if it had, so what? To expect people who have been down this road many times before with seemingly no positive gains come of it to then act happy? Unrealistic.

The people in the room wanted action, absolutely, but, in lieu of that, they would’ve settled for someone from each shop to listen to them, to show they understand even if they don’t fully know what it’s like to walk in their shoes. But how do you as a creative see a hearing like that and go, fuck it, I don’t even want any part of that?