Adland's Progressive Gaze

For over a decade, the UK advertising industry has been dominated by activists and careerists who've pushed their agenda and ensured that every issue is seen through the progressive gaze. Their influence has been all pervasive: from forcing a redefinition of creative excellence that meets their ideological ends, to pushing a form of DE+I that sets minority group against minority group, discriminates against many others, and ignores the diverse talent that we should be recruiting. In the process, they've imposed their groupthink on an industry that used to be a haven for free-thinking mavericks. But while the champions of social justice have focussed on their objectives, they've been blind to the moral failing that's hiding in plain sight. And that is the holding companies' false narrative of caring for their staff via the progressives' policies - whilst running their agencies, and those who work for them, into the ground. This, then, is the story of adland's woke elite, their ideological capture of our industry, and the bleak reality that's now staring us all in the face.

For over a decade, the UK advertising industry has been dominated by activists and careerists who've pushed their agenda and ensured that every issue is seen through the progressive gaze. Their influence has been all pervasive: from forcing a redefinition of creative excellence that meets their ideological ends, to pushing a form of DE+I that sets minority group against minority group, discriminates against many others, and ignores the diverse talent that we should be recruiting. In the process, they've imposed their groupthink on an industry that used to be a haven for free-thinking mavericks. But while the champions of social justice have focussed on their objectives, they've been blind to the moral failing that's hiding in plain sight. And that is the holding companies' false narrative of caring for their staff via the progressives' policies - whilst running their agencies, and those who work for them, into the ground. This, then, is the story of adland's woke elite, their ideological capture of our industry, and the bleak reality that's now staring us all in the face.