Common People #008
Helping Common People become more common in the creative industries
Hello Common friends
We’re sorry it has been a while since you heard from us. We have all been very busy and distracted behind the scenes. However, that doesn’t mean that it has been a quiet few months for Common People, on the contrary. So much has happened since April that it was a challenge to squeeze it all into a newsletter…
We’ve been watching and listening to
Common People co-founder Lisa Thompson spoke to the IPA (Institute of Practitioners) about all things Class in advertising. Well worth a listen on your commute: IPA Class in Advertising
We’ve been reading
Why we need more working-class creatives
Dan Roberts, creative director at The Romans, wrote a piece for Campaign Live explaining the need for more working-class creatives:
"Why is it, when 49% of the nation consider themselves to be working-class, do we fill our agencies with everyone but working-class people?"
Creativity starts from the fringes
Jed and Lisa spoke to CreativeBrief on creating a more inclusive industry, networking and tackling nepo-babies:
“There’s a lot of people that I'm sure would agree that with class diversity, we’d have better decisions being made and better ideas”
A member of the Common People community shared a piece of research from their ethnographic research consultancy Meet the 85%. They recently helped Saatchi & Saatchi deliver a piece of work called ‘WTF is going on’ by traveling all over the UK meeting people of all genders, ages, incomes, ethnicities to see how life is for them.
Emma Barratt, the Global Executive Creative Director at Wolff Olins was interviewed by AdForum about her unconventional journey into the industry:
“Coming from a council estate in Salford I count myself lucky to have got into the creative industry, but for many that door has always been hard to open and the industry feels like an alien places at times. We are now one of the least diverse, least open industries in the UK, I hope this gives a perspective to others from less privileged backgrounds.”
What can tha do when thi boots let watter: Towards accentism in the UK
A lovely piece from one of our community on accents:
“Every time I use my Yorkshire accent, in PR and academia, it feels like a little act of rebellion.”
We’re celebrating
Lisa Thompson was recognised by the IPA for her instrumental work in accelerating the success of the ad agency business in their annual Summer Honours List 🎉
On Thursday 15th June we celebrated Social Mobility Awareness Day. The theme for this year’s day was #SpeakMore. The Social Mobility Foundation gave a great round of their recent work on LinkedIn.
What winning at Cannes feels like.
On LinkedIn, Jed was celebrating James Whatley’s incredible success at Cannes:
“Our goal with Common People is to help make common people more common in the creative industries. An ENORMOUS barrier to this is that people from working class backgrounds don’t often see people like them ascending to the top of their game - but this is exactly what James has done.”
James wrote a piece explaining what winning at Cannes feels like and it is well worth a read:
“I don’t talk about my upbringing or my background much. I've never really thought that it mattered. I was recently sent a book called ‘Making it in the Creative Industry: A Practical Guide’ - from the Creative Mentor Network - and it reminded me that actually, I’ve been really effing lucky to get where I am.”
London’s Roundhouse to train 15,000 young people in creative industries
The Roundhouse is opening its doors to 15,000 young people, the majority from disadvantaged backgrounds, each year to learn skills, build confidence and make connections to equip them to work in the UK’s creative industries.
Kellogs drops requirement for marketers to have degrees
Kellogs will no longer require its marketers to have a degree saying that a degree “doesn’t always have a correlation” to what an employee can do or achieve – we’re excited that the tides are turning. Albeit slowly.
Ogilvy and ITV Studios initiative promotes liveable London wage for creatives
Given that of arts, entertainment and recreation jobs paid below the London living wage this is a much needed initiative.
In the news and Government stuff
Sir Keir Starmer has been talking about social mobility with Labour promising it would smash the “class ceiling” with education reform.
The Economist wrote an interesting follow up piece explaining that Labour’s cabinet would be Britain’s most state-educated since 1945 but its schools policy appears less radical than the class rhetoric suggests. You can read the full article here: Labour’s cabinet would be Britain’s most state-educated since 1945.
Speaking to The Radio Times,, broadcaster, author and parliamentarian Melvyn Bragg criticised the BBC for representing working-class people as “miserable, broke or in despair”,
“People like this, they worked so hard . . . they came up from the mines [and] factories, and what did they do? They created a huge culture. That was completely unrecognised… the BBC is probably to blame, because they only want working-class people if they are miserable”.
Helping Common People
The easiest way to help is to share this with some Common People Like YOU. Whether they’re an industry leader, or someone wanting to break into the industry, we can help. Point them in our direction.
If you’ve got jobs or opportunities that you’d like to share, send them our way.
If you see anything interesting that you think us Commoners would like, send that too.
If you’d like to offer up yourself as a mentor or find a mentor, reply to this email and we can help.
If you’d like to support Common People by helping out, then we’re always looking for people to join the group that puts a lot of this sort of stuff together.
We hope you enjoyed our latest newsletter. Let us know what you think - we’re a friendly bunch.
And never forget, we’re Common People, and proudly a different class.
See you again, take care, and stay in touch,
Your fellow Commoner