Back in July, we relayed some in-depth reporting done by Mashable that found that less than 9.7 percent of rostered directors on the AdAge Production Company A-List, from which ad agencies cull their directors for commercials, are women. Now Mashable has an update to report, which might lead to more women directing commercials.
As Valentina Valentini reports at Mashable, the agencies initially mentioned, including some major players, have announced their #FreeTheBid pledge, “a promise to include at least one woman in every bid put forward for ad campaigns.”
“At the bidding stage, when agencies present talent to clients, it’s common to present three directors (usually with one ‘preferred’ recommendation,” Mashable explains. “Effective immediately, major agencies like Mother, FCB Global, and 180LA are making it mandatory that one of those three be a woman.”
If getting hired for that big-budget tent-pole requires an indie film directing credit, which requires a television credit, which requires a commercial credit, it’s going to be hard for women to get their foot in the door if they can’t get those commercial jobs. Hopefully this requirement will change the game.
Susan Credle, Global CCO at FCB, was among the first major players to join the #FreetheBid campaign. Clients at FCB include Clorox, Nestle Waters, and Anheuser-Busch. Credle said that the initiative “reminds us all to open our eyes to the less obvious — but perhaps even more brilliant — choice. It helps move conversation from ‘Where are the women?’ to ‘Here are the women.’ And it’s about time.”
Commercials director Alma Har’el was prominently featured in the original Mashable report, and as a result was consulted by PJ Pereira, CCO and co-founder of Pereira & O’Dell (Coca-Cola, Intel, Skype). “Har’el immediately suggested that she would take the initiative to all advertising agencies and turn it into something much bigger. The problem she encountered: Some agencies were worried about finding enough women, or their clients feeling forced into a type of ‘affirmative action,’” Mashable reports. And #FreeTheBid was born.
Har’el explained, “There are a lot of initiatives for women that offer support and courses and lists and seminars, but my approach has always been, ‘We’re ready. We don’t need a seminar, we need a job!’ I couldn’t have been an independent filmmaker and make the films I love if I didn’t make a living directing commercials. I want to make sure other women filmmakers have the same chance to sustain themselves while being creative and shaping the way women are represented in advertising.”
That’s where #FreeTheBid comes in. “We have to remember that women are the number one consumer group and make for 85 percent of product purchase decisions,” Har’el said. “They’re tired of men telling them what to buy and how to feel about their bodies. The need for more nuanced work and a feminine point of view is natural. We’re just helping the process, we’re not forcing the need.”
Hopefully, #FreeTheBid will lead to more female directors from the ground up, and it’s a great move on the part of the ad agencies to pledge to partake in this initiative. Now let’s get to work.
