Don’t bring back the boys’ club in 2025
Opinion
For an industry rooted in its understanding of people, seeing DEI as expendable is deeply problematic. It has never been more vital for leaders to continue to invest in progress.
On the first Monday of the year, it emerged that Geraldine White, chief diversity officer at Publicis Groupe and one of the most respected diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) leaders in the industry, is heading for the exit.
Ad Age, which broke the news, reported that Publicis implemented cuts within its DEI teams at the end of last year, both at a holding company and individual agency level.
Meta and Amazon have also cut DEI initiatives this month.
There is no way to sugarcoat the truth that proponents of DEI, who are disproportionately made up of the diverse talent the industry so desperately needs, are facing an enormous struggle this year.
While large sections of the industry continue to conflate creativity with the number of days people sit in the office, a steady stream of talent is heading out of the door.
Brilliant women are facing the financial instability and misplaced shame that come hand in hand with redundancy. Not because of a lack of talent or a failure to deliver in sometimes impossible circumstances, but because of an extravagant lack of consistency in pushing for a more inclusive and dynamic industry.
The boys’ club is back in business.
Is it any wonder that women still cannot play the long game in an industry that routinely takes such a short-term view on diversity? It is 2025, yet there are still leaders who need reminding that diversity is not a trend.
A reactionary moment
Dismantling DEI has become a core mission of the conservative political movement.
Incoming US vice-president JD Vance sponsored the Dismantle DEI Act in June last year — a bill that takes aim at equitable hiring practices and looks to bar federal grants from going to diversity initiatives. Other provisions include preventing national securities associations like the New York Stock Exchange from instituting diversity requirements for corporate boards.
The tide against DEI has gathered momentum. In November, it was revealed that Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is phasing out several DEI initiatives. According to The Guardian, the company will no longer consider race and gender as a means to improve diversity when making offers to suppliers.
Yet it is important to note that the Dismantle DEI Act is not law. Nor has there ever been a hearing on it. Analysts predict that, even under the most pessimistic scenario, many forms of DEI will remain lawful under a Donald Trump presidency.
So it’s not proper leadership to view the industry’s lip-service approach to diversity as inevitable.
Scarcity and scorn
It is important not to perpetuate the toxic narrative that DEI has “all gone too far” before real change has even got off the ground.
There are leaders, advocates and organisations that are the lifeblood of our industry, striving for change in the midst of this cultural quicksand. It has never been more vital for leaders to speak up with consistency and continue to invest in progress. We cannot perpetually place plans to do better on pause. We must be intentional.
2025 is a difficult year. Business consolidation, political change and budgetary pressures make a toxic cocktail. It creates an ecosystem that makes it all too easy for leaders to adopt tunnel vision and fail to see the world through a lens other than their own.
Consolidation is never easy. The endless politics breed creative complacency and conservatism, while a scarcity mindset can result in leaders making cuts in all the wrong places.
For an industry rooted in its understanding of people, seeing DEI as expendable is deeply problematic. We must not buy into a media narrative that lacks both curiosity and compassion. The past cannot be a blueprint of what the future should look like.
Lifeblood of innovation
Our industry has a huge responsibility to challenge the “go woke and go broke” narrative that drives column inches yet denies the existence of established fact. As research from the Unstereotype Alliance proves, diversity — far from being a distraction — drives both creativity and commercial effectiveness.
The research shows that inclusive ad campaigns deliver 3.5% higher shorter-term sales and 16% higher longer-term sales. The study also found that inclusive ad campaigns drive 15% higher levels of customer loyalty and a 62% higher likelihood of being a consumer’s first choice.
DEI is the lifeblood of innovation. It is the engine of the creativity that our industry professes to prize so greatly.
It’s a people business
We are guilty of asking all the wrong questions while directing the talent we desperately need to the exit doors. Our thought leaders are more comfortable getting apoplectic about advertising ranking systems, without breaking a sweat over this catastrophic stream of talent from our industry.
Silence is a choice to be complicit.
Media is an industry that is built not on process but on the brilliance of its people. Leaders need to place listening to a diverse range of people at the top of the agenda in 2025.
Let’s not pretend a rollback on DEI is unavoidable. Let’s not ignore the All In Census finding just 8% of people want to work in an office four days a week. Let’s not pretend that cutting back on flexible working does not disproportionately impact diverse talent.
We must measure our leaders on actions, because accountability matters.
None of us is a passenger in all of this. As organisations and individuals, we have a choice. At its core, the cynicism surrounding inclusion is cowardice. The simple truth remains that people want to work for, buy from and invest in businesses they believe in.
I believe we can do better in 2025. The question is: do you?
Nicola Kemp has spent over two decades writing about diversity, equality and inclusion in the media. She is now editorial director of Creativebrief. She writes for The Media Leader each month.
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