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New edition, more interviews!

You know how the saying goes – you can read a book that changes your life. Well, I wrote a book that changed mine. It’s the book you are holding in your hand right now. A book that sprung one hundred percent out of my own frustration, disappointment and anger around the fact that there were still so few women in the ad industry, especially in leading roles and so few books on advertising written by women.

I was perplexed by the fact that the ad industry was to a large extent still a ‘boy’s club’, setting the norm and the culture for both agencies and the work being produced. And that the work itself presented images, which were most often based on stereotypes and sexism, especially when representing women and what it means to be a girl and a woman. Despite the fact that women are the consumers, making up eighty-five percent of all consumer purchasing decisions1. Mind boggling.

Of course, I hoped that the book would be read and perhaps even inspire a debate, a new awareness, a path to change. Little could I have imagined or even dreamed what Mad Women – A Herstory of Advertising would bring. The timing was obviously spot on; what I had

experienced during my then 27 years in advertising, turned out to be anything but a unique experience. Once the stories of the 13 women in the book were told, so many more stories were shared, so many more voices were raised.

In this edition, I have included a few more stories from women in other parts of the world, not included in the previous editions. I have done this because it continues to be vital to share new and different experiences and perspectives. Regardless of where we are from or where we work, it is striking how often our stories align, showing that our experiences are not unique or merely in our imagination; they are real. The power that comes out of that realization and what it enables in terms of rewriting history, bringing more people to the table and creating change, is so forceful and promising that – yes, it not only changed my career, but my entire life.

Because of the book, I was invited to speak all over the world, and wherever I went, whether it was to Bogotá in Colombia or to Bend in Oregon, to San Francisco, Berlin, Milan, London, Stockholm or anywhere else in Europe, I was moved by meeting ad women who generously shared their stories. All over the world, women in advertising have experienced how they have been discriminated, held back, ridiculed, sexually harassed and paid less. This is of course especially true for women of colour, who have never had the privileges of white people.

One of the strongest moments was when I walked out of the assembly hall after my speech at The Eldorado Festival in Bogotá, Colombia and a young woman came running up to me with tears in her eyes. She told me I, on stage, had told her story; I had expressed everything she had felt and experienced as a young art director, but never could voice. She hadn’t dared put her hand up to ask me a question during the Q&A session, because she was surrounded by her male colleagues and knew that they would bother her forever if she spoke up about gender equality. We were both moved and in tears because we felt connected and empowered by each other’s presence and stories.

It is all those doors that opened and all those personal encounters

all over the world that enable me to say that Mad Women is the book that changed my life. It would be presumptuous of me to promise that it will change yours too, but one thing I know for sure – it is by sharing our individual stories, by capturing and conveying the voices of women who have great stories to tell; great experiences to share, great advice to pass on, that we, together, will be able to change the agency cultures, the ad industry and the work that it produces.

We have already witnessed through the #metoo movement, how women’s stories are finally being heard and believed and how they are actually changing culture. Now that herstory is added to history, the story is rewritten and then everything can change.

Christina Knight, Creative Director

Stockholm, January 2021

1) Catalyst, Quick Take: Buying Power (April 27, 2020) and girlpowermarketing.com/ womens-purchasing-power

Shanteka Sigers

Every time I have participated in Kat Gordon’s movement The 3 percent conference 1, I have had the fortune to listen to and network with a brilliant, inspiring and diverse group of women from the ad industry. I have always come away with new ideas, new perspectives and a better understanding of what challenges we face in adland. One of these women is Shanteka Sigers, Executive Creative Director, strategist and copywriter with extensive experience of building and leading diverse creative departments.

Looking back, how did it all start?

I was born in Birmingham, Alabama and I didn’t know about my half sisters and brothers until later in life, so I grew up as a lonely, only child. I spent my time coming up with creative ways to entertain myself. I wrote stories and skits and I read anything I could find. My teachers at middle school – Alonzo Bates Academy for the Gifted and Talented in Detroit – were absolutely amazing. They cared about us and they expected us to achieve. In sixth grade, we didn’t have spelling words. We had vocabulary skill building words. Gregarious. Magnanimous. Voracious. We were conjugating verbs and compiling anthologies.

Also, I moved a lot when I was younger. I went to four different high schools in four different cities, Detroit, Birmingham, Woodbridge and Charlotte. I think that has made me adjust to change easier than most. Or it has made me never make true connections with anything. One or the other. Maybe a little of both.

I wrote my first ad in fifth grade for Lawson’s Cleaners in Birmingham, Alabama. I drew a poster to encourage people to drop off their clothes there, featuring Smurfette. I marched in there, pitched it and they bought it for five bucks and put it in their front window. I had no idea that this was a real, adult job that I could have. Later, when I studied at Northwestern University, I took an advertising class with Ron Kaatz, who used to work at JWT. He told me I belonged in a creative department.

Did you go straight into advertising after graduating from Northwestern?

No, I worked in retail at H2O Plus and then in PR, in the art department at Patrick outdoor. So, I was advertising adjacent a lot of the time. None of those were quite the right mix for me, but each one helped me be a better creative. I learned how to sell, how to be an excellent salesperson on the retail floor. Up close. I learned to work with agencies – all very useful things. Then eventually, I had an internship with a rep in Chicago named Val Gobos, which allowed me to breathe the air of actual ad agencies. But my first job making ads was as a copywriter for the haircare company Soft Sheen, they had an in-house agency called Brainstorm. But as far as agency jobs? I’d probably still be looking for a job, if it had not been for Tom Burrell. I am forever grateful, as I had pretty much shown my portfolio to every agency on Michigan Avenue in Chicago and Burrell Communications Group were the only ones who called me for an interview. I started off by freelancing for three days and sold a toothpaste print ad to an executive creator director – and then they hired me. And from there on, I have worked at a number of agencies, as a copywriter, strategist and creative director, currently at the These Trillions Brand Consultancy, in Austin, Texas. The agency, which is

“Advertising absolutley changes how America feels about groups of people”

“Patriarchy seemed far less of a challenge than outright and systemic racism”

located in Austin in Texas, specializes in the African-American consumer segment. It provides a culturally fluent voice in the room that can spot overlooked opportunity and point out missteps. The agency is 100% women owned.

When you were younger, were you aware of differences between men and women; differences in rights and opportunities?

The differences in rights and opportunities I was primarily concerned with, were those between races. Patriarchy seemed far less of a challenge than outright and systemic racism. The brilliant attorney Kimberlé Crenshaw developed the theory of intersectionality, which plays a huge role in how I perceive the industry. In America, being a woman and being black, I can’t really tell what is hitting me when. Neither group has been traditionally welcomed in general market creative departments.

Do you see a difference in gender equality over the years in the industry? Whether you had to live through the bad old days or you’re walking in the door as a junior with higher expectations, I think most of us understand that women in the creative department are going to face some unique challenges.

Has advertising itself changed to the better in your country; less sexist, less stereotype, more inclusive? Can advertising as such change our perception of men and women?

Ads are better. Agencies are not. As a part of of popular culture, advertising absolutely changes how America feels about groups of people.

Has #metoo changed the advertising industry in your country?

I think #metoo and Black Lives Matters have created some positive change. But of course, there’s already backlash for both. Folks will encourage you to stick your neck out or speak honestly, but if you do and get fired or blacklisted, who is willing to help you?

I admire Caroline Dettman, the founding partner of Have Her Back , for supporting women after they took on their agencies. For any of this to last, we have to prepare to keep the industry open when it wants to slam the doors shut on anyone who stands up.

How would you describe your own leadership? Have you had mentors or inspiring bosses?

A creative department should be a band of buoyant, free, problem solvers. As part of leadership, I’m responsible for putting in place the things that enable creative people to weather the turbulent nature of this business. I hire the right people and let them do their thing. I keep us focused on our true job, and that is to solve business challenges. Each time I talk to Robert Clifton Jr. my understanding of advertising and how to manage people is deepened. Bobbi Gassy taught me to think globally and to dazzle. Bob Wingo hired me and gave me a department to build. That’s where I got to test my leadership. You can have all the ambition and skills in the world but if you never put them in action, they remain theoretical.

What would your advice to young women and young men in or going into advertising, be?

I don’t like giving career advice. What do I know? I might have gotten this whole thing wrong …

1) Read more about Kat Gordon and The 3 percent conference, page 179.

The ad industry continues to be horribly homogenous – that is, pre-dominantly male and white. Few people, at least in Sweden, have the experience of being creative directors in diverse and representative teams the way Shanteka has. Her insights and experiences have reminded me of how privileged I have been, in ‘only’ having been challenged by patriarchy and not by systemic racism. I feel ashamed that our industry is still not representative, diverse and inclusive, especially as it seems to pride itself of being front-line and progressive. I have really taken to heart what Shanteka said in an earlier interview, published in Communication Arts – “Half the battle is believing that you belong in the room”.

It’s on us all, to make everyone belong, because everyone does and I am convinced that is why it is so important that someone tells you that early on in your career, like Ron Kaatz, who told Shanteka she belonged in a creative department. And that people like Caroline Dettman of Have Her Back , who Shanteka also refers to, are prepared to keep the industry open when it wants to slam the doors shut on anyone who stands up. Because, as Shanteka says: “I think most of us understand that women in the creative department are going to face some unique challenges.”

Meet 17 inspiring ad women who have paved their own way in an industry traditionally defined by “Mad men”. Their experiences and advice on how to make advertising more diverse, inclusive and gender equal is a game changer and something agencies, clients and consumers will benefit from. So, pass the book on and make sure everyone reads it, whether they are an ad student, the art director next to you, your client, your boss or your very best friend.

This book is a well-needed, empowering and inspirational account of women’s experiences of the ad industry. An industry which far too long has lacked the perspective of half of the population; the very half which to such a large extent represents the consumer. Therefore, everyone who wants to shape our future industry should put it on their reading list immediately.

– mary wells lawrence, copywriter & ceo

Christina Knight has taken it upon herself to shine a light on the greatest advertising thinkers, from the incomparable Mary Wells Lawrence to legends like Cilla Snowball and Shelly Lazarus, to young women in the industry today. She offers inspirational stories of talent, fortitude and sheer hard work. Women are still woefully under-represented in advertising, especially in the senior roles. This book is packed with 17 reasons why that must change.

– philip thomas, chairman, cannes lions

ISBN 978-91-88613-84-4