Publisher defends ‘sexist’ list as reflective of ad industry

An annual list ranking ranks Australia’s best creative leaders has sparked international condemnation for including only one woman.

Campaign Brief magazine is in the firing line for publishing an all-male list of creative leaders in the advertising industry.

The publisher of a celebrated list of creative leaders in Australia’s advertising industry has defended its feature after receiving international backlash for a double page spread of 20 men.

Campaign Brief, a print and online publication dedicated to showcasing the creative advertising and production industry, has been in the firing line for its annual feature, which ranks the most awarded creative leaders based on the work created by their agencies.

The list draws results from the Best Ads of the World feature which is compiled from a weekly feature where creative leaders from around the globe select and award the best work. The points are allocated to the most senior creative at the agency which created the work. The list including only one woman, The Monkeys chief creative officer (CCO) Tara Ford.

This double page spread from Campaign Brief magazine has drawn international backlash for featuring images of 20 men and no women.

Campaign Brief owner and publisher Michael Lynch has defended the feature which he argued is “reflective of the creative departments in advertising agencies”.

“Unfortunately the list exposes the uncomfortable truth that the majority of agencies have male chief creative officers (CCO),” he said.

“While there are a few female executive creative directors, there are not a lot. If you look at the departments they are all led by men. [The double-page spread] is reflecting the current industry, which it appears by those pictures is sexist. For whatever reason agencies are not giving women the top roles in creative departments.”

Mr Lynch said the issue was the same in the production industry where the top six production companies, as ranked by the Best Ads system, were all led by men.

“There are plenty of women EPs and lots of women employed throughout the industry, but there seems to be a situation at the top of these companies,” he said.

Mr Lynch spoke to The Australian, following huge online backlash from local and international figures within the advertising industry which called the feature, which is published every year, sexist.

An official statement from Campaign Brief said: “While the list reflects the current makeup of leadership in creative departments, it is not an endorsement of the imbalance. We recognise the significant contributions of women across all sectors of the industry—whether in management, media, account service, or production—and fully support efforts to increase female representation in creative leadership.

“As a media platform, our role is to report on the industry’s reality, but we also recognise our responsibility to amplify conversations about diversity and equity. Moving forward, we will continue to shine a light on the work being done to address these disparities and support initiatives that drive meaningful change. We remain committed to encouraging a more inclusive and equitable industry for all.

“Going forward we will feature the work only, not pics of the CCOs of the winning agencies, which admittedly was a big mistake.”

The Advertising Council of Australia released its own statement from chief executive Tony Hale regarding the gender representation in the industry.

“It is immensely disappointing that we still need to have this discussion,” wrote Mr Hale.

“It has long been established that diversity and inclusion have been ongoing challenges for Australian advertising and if we are to ensure the long-term prosperity of the industry, we all have a role to create change. And that means everyone.”

Mr Hale’s statement acknowledged the gender imbalance across “almost every program” the ACA runs, including its board. “Not because we work hard to achieve parity but because the best candidates naturally emerge.”

“Our data shows that women in senior management have increased from 22% in 2017 to 42% in 2023. Although underrepresentation persists in senior creative positions, the balance is improving.”

The statement called on the industry to “celebrate and shine a light on the success stories of our incredibly diverse talent to inspire the next generation of leaders.

“While we still have a long way to go, the only way to overcome discrimination and lack of inclusivity is to create an industry culture that simply does not tolerate it.

“We are a better industry than this. If we are truly committed to equity, it is incumbent on individuals and businesses to only align with those who share and represent their values,” said Mr Hale.

Mr Lynch suggested advertising agencies should invest more in recruiting and promoting more women into senior creative positions.

“The agencies could look at creating co-CCO roles. Saatchi & Saatchi have Mandie & Avish [Mandie van der Merwe and Avish Gordhan] as co-CCOs and that works perfectly. More agencies could do that and promote women, wages would go up but it would balance things out. They could have two CCOs, two ECDs all the way down the list to balance it out,” he said.