Increasing diversity in advertising creative departments through developing social and cultural capital
- Submitting institution
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University of Greenwich
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- MCO-UOA32-MS1
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
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- Location
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- Brief description of type
- A multi-component output
- Open access status
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- Month
- -
- Year
- 2020
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- My research questions whether addressing social and cultural capital openly and honestly would help a more diverse range of people, cutting across gender, race, social class, age and sexual orientation, to see themselves as employable in the advertising sector. My research into the global industry expectation of social and cultural capital led to me writing a textbook, sold worldwide, and subsequently to exploring the research question in more depth through two live projects, one of which is funded by and runs in international advertising agency M&C Saatchi, the other at the University of Greenwich. This innovative approach has allowed me to develop a responsive model in an ongoing and iterative process.
The techniques and strategies that I promote have been drawn together from a range of interviews, reflections and actions across all components. Conducting thirty-two in-depth interviews with a diverse range of advertising creatives across six continents allowed me to develop a global perspective. I discovered common themes on the core skills, understanding, and social and cultural capital that are needed by anyone to work in advertising anywhere. Following this, and drawing from Jean McNiff’s action research framework (2013, 2017), I followed a reflexive and reflective iterative design and co-design process to develop the STEPS course (2016-2020) and The Carbon Academy (2018 - ongoing). This reflective practice, based on testimonials, interviews and surveys, allowed me to track change, and to research the effect of developing capitals across two live projects.
The components form a process of research which addresses the lack of diversity in advertising creative departments, as identified in a number of industry reports (for example The IPA Agency Census 2019). This has strengthened the impact on the participants and provided new evidence-based arguments for supporting the development of social and cultural capital.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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