In a survey which included some 375 of its female members, the 4A’s (American Association of Advertising Agencies) reported that more than half of those respondents had experienced sexual harassment at least once.
The women also shared that there have been at least a few times when they have not received desired assignments or promotions because of discrimination (33%) and that there have been times when they were not included in making decisions that they should have been included in because of discrimination (42%).
When asked to what extent they feel potentially vulnerable to discrimination at work in the advertising industry, more than half of the respondents said their gender made them feel either somewhat vulnerable (39%) or very vulnerable (15%), higher than any other attribute in the survey.
And almost two-thirds of respondents either agree somewhat (40%) or agree totally (19%) that there were times when they personally experienced discrimination without recognizing it–only now do they see it was discrimination.
Nancy Hill, president and CEO of the 4A’s, said that to properly address these issues, she challenges agencies to do the following for starters:
•”As I mentioned at this year’s Transformation conference,” related Hill, “we must start at the top, with each CEO appointing himself or herself the chief diversity officer. Until there’s better representation of gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation in an organization’s upper echelon, awareness and change are going to be harder to come by.”
•”Take a cue from Kate Stanners at Saatchi & Saatchi, and encourage young women to pursue leadership positions.”
• And "follow the example of several IPG agencies and begin unconscious bias training, and perhaps implement a blind résumé practice to eliminate any gender or ethnicity identifiers from résumés; this will help level set our hiring practices.”
Hill added that the 4A’s would release more data from its research during Advertising Week (Sept. 26-30) in New York. This additional info will center on how women are portrayed in advertising and the impact it has on our society.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More