Bro culture in agencies and it’s impact on women.

Contributors:Angel Rose (Name changed on request), Anushree Ghosh, Beena George, Divya Bahirwani, Eliza Ruth (Name changed on request), Gauri Joshi, Kopal Mukim, Nimarta Verma, Pooja Patil, Sejal Choudhary, Shruti Gupta and Vanshika Mehta.

Article and questions by Chirag Kaku

Special Thanks to Raghav Swamy

Locker Rooms in Advertising: 

Even if you’ve never read Foucault, you know that advertising can be misogynistic. “Sex sells” an adage in advertising creates not only sexist advertising but sexist advertising agencies too.

Many agencies have tried to address the concerns by opting into diversity initiatives to improve gender and racial representation but the attempts have fallen flat due to a workplace culture fueled with testosterone. Men overwhelmingly lead creative teams. According to Glassdoor, the gender pay gap in advertising exceeds the average in other industries. Most women working in advertising have experienced some form of sexual harassment and some would have hoped the #MeToo movement could have changed something within the industry, it seems to have left it unharmed. Now with the recent #BoysLockerRoom movement in India, I am hopeful this conversation gets picked up in the advertising industry too.

For those not familiar with #BoisLockerRoom: An Instagram chat group called ‘Bois Locker Room’, with hundreds of boys from south Delhi, was used for sharing photos of underage girls, objectifying them, and promoting rape culture. The group was exposed on Twitter on Sunday, 3 May 2020. The boys allegedly shared morphed photos of underage girls, body shaming and slut-shaming them on the group chat and talking about rape and gang rape casually. The exposure has opened up conversations about gender roles and expectations from young boys, and the roots of “rape culture”, the education system and pop culture, which advertising is a big part of. 

My cousin, who is 26 and works in advertising, said he was inspired by Don Draper and chose the career because of the show. The Mad-Menisque culture in advertising has everything bro-culture demands. Bro-culture is valued by growth and prioritizes young macho men with obnoxious and toxic behaviour. The average ‘bro’ tends to be a hustling guy who places winning and success above everything else. Industries with a ‘bro culture’ encourage excessive partying as a motivating tool.

This article by 3%movement talks about research by AAAA and gives insights into the lived experiences of women in advertising.

It states agency culture is extremely pervasive where party attitude, inappropriate humour, and combative and competitive sense of how business is done is encouraged. Bro culture makes women feel like outsiders. The culture has arbiters and enablers where the leadership sets the tonality and behaviour and models competitive behaviour. Women in advertising are constantly negotiating Goldilocks Syndrome, attempting to find that line between aggressive and assertive. 

I recently spoke to Raghav Swamy on the subject and he pointed out that Cultural conditioning, social norms, movies, advertising and marketing have subliminally created gender association and biases. Advertisers and marketers are an integral part of the problem simply because they live to build and exploit stereotypes. The “Bois Locker Room” incident is a wake-up calls for all the men in advertising. Sexist jokes and inappropriate comments are just the tip of the iceberg, the real problem is the culture in advertising. Conforming to prevailing points of views, fear of confrontation and the groupthink phenomenon are the real issues that plague men in advertising agencies.

He suggested that As men we don’t know what it’s like, only women do. And hence it is extremely important for us to learn all the things that women find annoying, irritating and downright disgusting.

Women need to lead the way in these conversations and the role of men should be that of allies not champions. The visibility of men in this conversation is more important than ever.

So, I wanted to understand and help others understand what a woman’s lived experience is like within the “bro-culture” in agencies. The more we understand, the more we can do something about it.

I asked women in advertising about their points of view on the topic and here’s what they had to say.

Sexism; subtle or overt in agencies?

Most agree that disturbing behaviours are everyday occurrences. Some feel that Sexism is extremely overt in agencies while a few seem to think that a lot of it depends on the culture of the organisation.

Angel Rose: You have the good ol’ boys who make inappropriate jokes or comments. But there are subtler, possibly unaware offenders who make it a habit of talking over women.

Divya Bahirwani: It’s undoubtedly a boys club. Undoubtedly. 

Vanshika Mehta: It’s the image that sex sells and women are objects. Sexist creations require sexist creators. It’s as simple as that.

Eliza Ruth: As shapers and movers of culture – an advertising agency has a lot to be accountable for. Having said that, culture depends on the agency you are in. Generally men and women alike nurture the voice of masculine enough to let sexism thrive. It’s a mindset.

Common experiences for women in advertising:

From inappropriate jokes, Slack chats, communal fantasizing of women, undermining women’s authority, asking if it’s that time of the month, insisting that they should talk to their senior, and imposing a certain behaviour or a certain style of being. All of this is common parlance.

Anushree Ghosh: ‘Men will be men’ contexts are so normalized, that its tiring to even call those out.

Divya Bahirwani: Casual conversations on female colleagues, comments on body parts or outfits of the day, pseudo sexist jokes – these are all everyday occurrences. I have been physically molested at an office party at a big agency and I took the complaint to management; after a long struggle…he got a slap on his wrist at best.

Other than that, what happens day to day…would be, undermining your authority- insisting on a ‘senior’; or asking you if you need a ‘woman’s day or time out’…stuff like that. It’s hard to draw the line and say what makes us hypersensitive and what should be allowed.

Vanshika Mehta: I’ve very often been subject to silence, even if my point is valid. It’s a sort of harassment that all women need to face when in the corporate world.

On silence and looking for support:

Some women tend to use their own judgement and wisdom to decide when to speak up (Naturally). But many feel that keeping mum is not going to solve anything. Encouraging people to speak up and making sure that people know that this is a safe space for women to talk is extremely important.

Angel Rose: I try to confront people unless it’s an unsafe environment.

Beena George: I did try to raise an issue not for me, but for another colleague. It was her farewell and somebody tried to forcibly try to take pictures with her. While I wasn’t there I did try to raise a stink, only to be told by her boss that I shouldn’t. So, boy’s locker room or not there is a lot of hush hush that still goes on.

Divya Bahirwani: I’ve seen and rallied with fellow female colleagues to encourage each other to be vocal, call out casual or blatant sexism

Eliza Ruth: I firmly believe it is not only possible, but it is also extremely important to not stay silent. And particularly in an industry where openness in interactions and workspace culture is essential for ideas to cross-pollinate.

Kopal Mukim: I can't condone women's silence any more than that of men. I mean of course, women have everything to lose, the odds are already against them and they are painfully aware that it's going to be an uphill battle but still the cost of living in silence is too high. It is important to first articulate the reality you want to live in. But also, the other reason for women to speak up is to ensure that we are not complicit of the same sexist behaviour. This struggle is against decades of structuralism that have ingrained these prejudices and biases in all of us.

Pooja Patil: I remember an incident where a client spoke to me disrespectfully and in a condescending and inappropriate manner. I finally decided to bring it up to my immediate boss, and he did not shut this up. He confronted him and asked him to be respectful and professional.

Let’s talk about language:

Most agree that fitting in is all about talking a certain way and if you can’t handle the language then you are not cool enough to be part of the ‘inner circle’.

Angel Rose: I’ve been told on multiple occasions that I’m too abrasive in my language to clients and too quiet as it relates to my coworkers. There is a lot of pressure – in particular, for women in client services – to be social butterflies.

Anushree Ghosh: A woman with a wider ‘abuse vocabulary’ (F word, B words and the likes) is considered the ‘agency type’,

Beena George: I have learnt all the abusive words at the agency. In fact, I barely use it anywhere else but there

Divya Bahirwani: Again, it comes down to being a boy’s club – so to fit in, you end up adopting some of these cues. This is not to say that they are forced onto you, it’s the environment.

Sejal Choudhary: In most agencies, there is something called ‘culture fit’ and if you fail to fit in that culture or adapt there are chances you might be compelled to follow it or not hired in the first place.

What about humour?

While there are a few who feel that the #MeToo movement has shown some change, the overall sentiment is that sexist humour is disturbing and this an everyday tragedy that most of these women have to deal with. People need to get that it’s not just a joke, it’s not harmless in fact it normalizes so many things that need to be condoned.

Angel Rose: The sexism, in my experience, tends to be more subtle. In wake of #MeToo movement, I think folks have started to recognize the repercussions of their “jokes”.

Divya Bahirwani: I think, for the most part, agency culture is very casual so yes, it’s a larger cultural problem and not so much an ad agency problem. I’ve witnessed the same with some big corporate clients too.

Eliza Ruth: Breeding humour isn’t equivalent to breeding inappropriateness. Not tolerating any form of inappropriateness is a value and humour is a form of expression

Kopal Mukim: Let’s break inappropriate down. These “expressions” or “just a joke” are creating an extremely distressing work environment for women, while also facilitating a tolerance of discrimination and sexism among men. Given the current scenario, sexist humour is very much like making dead baby jokes to an audience full of people that have lost babies. No matter how good the joke is, it’s not going to be funny, it’s just going to be cruel.

Nimarta Verma: every single one of us has a role in feeding and contributing to inappropriate jokes. I’ve definitely been guilty of making those jokes to my fellow male and female colleagues. In my view, we can’t ‘categorize’ and say ‘these jokes are appropriate for X but not Y’. The multiple standards have got to end. And we can start with ourselves.

Has feminism become a cuss word?

Angel Rose: I don’t necessarily believe it’s a “cuss” word. But there’s a stigma. More of an “eye roll” than anything else. But fuck ‘em. Educate yourself and know that you’re standing against systematic discrimination that has existed since medieval times.

Divya Bahirwani: It has become a defence mechanism for most guys and they use it as a trump card sometimes to gaslight a woman who tries to call out bad behaviour. I remember once telling a colleague that ‘I’m sorry that the #MeToo movement is asking you to behave professionally and watch your language.

Eliza Ruth: Some usage of feminism has also diluted its meaning because a lot of times the situations it seems to address is not to with gender at all. It is to do with something even larger – at a human level rather than at a gender level. 

Shruti Gupta: General presumption around feminism is that it is equal to male-bashing. In today’s world, we need to bring back the true essence of feminism which is about achieving gender equality.

Vanshika Mehta: Because no one fucking understands Feminism. It is equality, not women above men.

So what next?

Angel Rose: I would highly recommend becoming more politically active – or at the very least tuned-in. Women are also capable of discrimination and abuse. Until we educate ourselves, our professional lives will continue to be grounds for injustice.

Anushree Ghosh: Continue to excel at work and continue to call out, report (if need be), it is an essential and continuous training that men/women/and other genders need to impart to so-called parochial and cis-gender people, in terms how they should be treated.

Beena George: Speak up and for God’s sake and support other women, career-wise and otherwise too. The insecurity at senior levels especially among women jostling for the leftover positions is really unhealthy.

Divya Bahirwani: Speak up. Act up. Be brave. Consistency is key.

Eliza Ruth: Make their voice more heard if it isn’t. Include men as much as women. Be intolerant towards anything that doesn’t feel equal.

Gauri Joshi: Refuse to play by the archaic rules or expectations.

Shruti Gupta: Advertising or otherwise such behaviour can only be eliminated when women decide to actively support other women around them. Don’t “adjust”.

Kopal Mukim: A solution would be to address toxic masculinity with every interaction from the very beginning.