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84% of Filmmakers Say Ad Industry is Sexist

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Eighty-four percent of filmmakers think the ad industry is sexist.

That’s according to new research released today by global video creation platform The Smalls, which also revealed that 73% of female directors have witnessed sexism first hand while working in the ad industry.

The global survey also found that 56% of female directors think they would stand a better chance of winning a brief if they were a man, while almost two-thirds say being a woman has hampered their careers in the industry.

The Smalls - which uses its tech platform to match the world’s top brands with its global community of 17,000 filmmakers - released the survey results ahead of the start of its 13th annual Film Festival.

With 93% of ads made by men and only 12% of Creative Directors in London female (source: Creative Equals) the theme of The Smalls’ festival this year is 50:50 Filmmaking, pushing for gender equality within Adland - an initiative recently backed by brands such as P&G.

Key findings from the survey include: 

  • 60% of female filmmakers believe being a woman has hampered their career in the industry;
  • 76% of male directors and 87% of female filmmakers think the ad industry is sexist;
  • Only 19% of female filmmakers say they have not been impacted by the gender pay gap;
  • 71% of filmmakers - male and female - think a lack of women directors is having a negative impact on the creative work in the ad industry.

Kate Tancred, CEO and co-founder of The Smalls, said: “There’s no lack of talented female writers, directors and producers to give women a voice, but is the industry ready to listen? Looking at the results of our survey, it certainly doesn’t look that way, with the majority of female filmmakers thinking the odds are still stacked against them.  

“50:50 filmmaking is essential if advertising is to stay relevant to the next generation of women. If nothing else, upping the amount of female talent in production will ensure we have more authentic and genuine conversations with women through advertising.” 

Methodology:

102 male and female filmmakers from Europe, Asia and Australia took part in The Smalls’ 50:50 Filmmaking Survey, which ran from June to July 2018.

To find out the full details of the survey, check out our downloadable pdf:
https://goo.gl/forms/GGwuVtGFWm0VxsG33

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