Galloping Ahead With The 3%

Founder and former chair of BBH US, TED celebrity, founder of LetsMakeLoveNotPorn and IfWeRanTheWorld... It's fair to say that Cindy Gallop is one hell of a busy woman. But she always makes time to do the things that she believes will make a difference – advice she often gives to the next generation.

Later today – at 4pm EST – Gallop will be giving a talk at the 3% Conference about celebrating female talent, engaging with millenials and overthrowing the old white male creative hierachy.

How did you get involved with the 3% conference?

Firstly, I just want to say that the 3% Conference is the most innovative, the most disruptive, the most stylish conference put on by the industry anywhere. It’s unique as it’s completely managed by and executed by women, and is a total celebration of female talent. Hats off to Jenny Bergman, the designer, as the whole thing is really thought through – the catering is cool; the inspiration areas are cool; the breastfeeding areas etc. And because the audience is jam-packed with women (and men), there’s a great variety of style and colour in people’s outfits, which is really unusual for a conference. And truly reflects female creativity.

I’ve been speaking at the 3% Conference since it started and I honestly can’t remember how I first got involved. Kat Gordon (the conference’s founder, below) must have reached out to me. Probably because I’ve been championing women’s rights and issues in advertising, tech and business as a whole for so many years. Our industry has been bemoaning the lack of women in creative departments for so long and it’s ironic that it’s taken a woman to change that and publically discuss it.

How has the conference evolved since its conception? (When it initially launched, only three percent of female Americans occupied CD positions, now they make up 11 percent)

It’s really important to know that all of this changes when we make it change. Kat Gordon has mobilised every woman and man to get involved and discuss this issue. You don’t see men doing what Kat has done, which is set out to make a change with the conference and then quantifying it with data. She founded the conference, she’s measuring its results and reporting its findings in an effort to respond and change the situation.

I gave the opening keynote at the first and second 3% Conferences. This year and last year, I’ve given the closing keynote. It’s reached a point where we realise that while Mad Men highlighted the appalling sexism of the past, it’s still rife today. In an industry that’s on the cutting edge of cultural movements, this is incredibly shocking. The good news is that social media has impacted the industry. Experiences of sexism can be easily shared online - as well as efforts to counter it.

Do you think that attitudes towards gender are changing?

As I said before, attitudes change when we make them change. White, male creatives are perfectly happy with the status quo, so why the fuck would they want to make them change?

What are the main reasons that women aren’t reaching creative director positions in the US?

I will be discussing this in my closing keynote at today’s conference. All the keynotes that I have given at 3% Conference are deliberately sequential. The first was about creating awareness of the issues affecting women in our industry; the second discussed the micro-actions that we can all embrace to take action. And at last year’s closing keynote (below), I spoke about change not being fast enough and suggested various accelerants to speed change up.

Now, this year I’m going to focus on how to see the results we want. Lack of support and gender expectations are some of the issues. There will be a live stream of tweets following my talk, where I’ll be highlighting the solutions to obstacles we have to overcome.

When you’re part of the elder white male status quo, you see no need to change it. In reality, the whole industry should hear this talk as it’s about is how we can all change the future of the industry – and the world together. But how advertising can really change the world.

People are already exploring this, but in the wrong way. These are things that I’ve been thinking and talking about for years, so I’m leaning on my previous experiences, naming names and quoting myself. But it’s gathering zeitgeist now. In honesty, I’ve been talking about this for so long, I’m bored of talking about it all the time, but it’s essential. All my talks draw on my own experiences within the industry.

Has the audience changed? And how so?

In my closing keynote last year, I had been moved to tears on several occasions during the preceding two days, because you do not realize how much our industry does not welcome, celebrate, champion and value female creativity and talent, until you're somewhere that does. And these are the emotions that people feel when they become part of it. Nowhere else in the industry is there this level of respect for appreciation and valuation of female creativity and talent.

Having previously talked about awareness, micro actions, accelerants, this year you're talking about results and the future of advertising. What is the main message that you want people to take away from your talk?

The message is very simple. I’m going to tell all the women and all the men in the industry how to start changing all of this from tomorrow. Every single one of us has a role. It’s not just about gender equality – this strategy will save the ad industry, make more money and change the world.

One of the topics that I’m going to be talking about is sex and the fact that sex is actually one of the ways in which our industry can change the world. I’m revamping that whore-y old cliché, “sex sells”, and am looking at the link between gender issues and sexual advertising.

It’s about communication through demonstration. I’m simply doing what our industry does – not communicate rationally, but emotionally. You can be rational until you’re blue in the face. But people need to hear the emotional side to take it on board. I’m going to be telling stories - I fucking hate the term 'storytelling,' it's over-used in our industry, but that's what I will be doing – but it’s the way to engage with people and make the audience sit up and listen, and really take all of this on board.

And what message do you want people to take away from the conference?

I want them to believe that they can change their own future and the future of the ad industry – and above all, that they’re going to. Change happens from the bottom up, not the top down.

Old white creative males are sitting pretty on top of huge bonuses – so why would they want to rock the boat? They think its their legacy to create the most humungously large holding company of all, not to leave the industry better than how they found it. The 3Percent Conference is about how we all take the industry to a better place.

What advice would you give to the next generation?

I’m asked this question a lot. I gave a seminar in Cannes in 2012 called Porn, Youth and Brands: The Biggest Sociocultural Influence on Young People Today That We Don't Talk About. They never promoted the session; instead they buried me on the opening Sunday. But when it came to it, it was jam-packed with young creatives. Mostly millennials coming into the industry, which was perfectly appropriate for the talk.

Someone in the audience asked me for advice about how to get into advertising today. And I simply replied, “Don’t.” I said, “Don’t go into advertising to go into advertising. Go into advertising to make what you want to happen, happen. Go into it and spot the gap.”

Our industry does not listen enough to the youngest people in it, who provide seriously useful ideas. If we were to create a safe space and invite into it the youngest people across every industry – the account people, the creatives, the receptionists – and ask them to speak confidentially about the job they’re doing, the industry and their roles in society, their answers would be illuminating. I guarantee that they would offer a fresh and objective perspective. And often they’re hysterically, screamingly funny. And their conversations are very entertaining.

This June, I spoke at the first 3% London event, where the sense of revelation in the female audience was palpable. I compare it to the moment in The Matrix when Keanu Reeves wakes up in the pod stuck full of tubes and realizes that the entire world he thought he was living in is an artificial construct. My talk this afternoon is about the male role in all of this. The odds are often stacked against women but are not realised by men. Especially when those men form part of the norm. They often have no idea how women and people of colour experience things. And it’s worth pointing out here that everything in regard to gender also applies to skin colour. I speak for diversity in totality and the two – race and gender – can’t be separated.

You’re very passionate about women’s rights, do you ever worry that it could impact negatively on the next generation of men?  How do we differentiate between gender equality/feminism and gender confidence personally and professionally?

I’ll be touching on this in the keynote, but I’ve found that the next generation of men want this imbalance to change. Young white male creatives are fed up with the situation and they’re embracing change. Some do fall under the influence of the old white creatives, but the majority of right-thinking young males want to be part of the future – and they recognise what role gender equality plays.

How has the conference gone so far this year?

Stormingly well. It’s been a wonderful experience so far. Everyone has loved it and I can only imagine how the numbers have grown year on year.

Kat Gordon said that the conference will end once at least 50% of women man make up creative director roles in the US. How soon do you expect this to be? Could it be next year?

This year, the focus is to make change happen quicker. But change is down to the individual. In my talk, I’m going to put everyone on the spot and make them think about what they are doing to change gender inequality… It’s your responsibility.

Gallop is currently looking for funding for real-world sex website MakeLoveNotWar (above). Any ambitious open-minded investors should contact her here.

She will also be running a four-part 4As Glass Ladder webinar series, which will look at how women can overcome the obstacles they face on their path into the industry. The first session How to join the C-suit when nobody thinks you can will start tomorrow at 12.30pm EST.