CANNES \u2013 Global agency MEC has a bias against bias. Toward the top of the list is \u201cunconscious bias\u201d and it\u2019s become an acute problem in a day and age when agencies are facing more competitors than ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve done an awful lot of work on unconscious bias. It\u2019s a huge thing in our industry,\u201d says Marie-Claire Barker, MEC\u2019s Global Chief Talent Officer, who notes that agencies\u2019 competitive set is \u201calmost unrecognizable from five years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
This led MEC during last year\u2019s Advertising Week New York to launch an initiative titled Brave Your Bias<\/a>. It\u2019s based in part on research the company cites showing, among other things, that companies in the top quartile for gender or racial and ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to have greater financial returns than the industry average.<\/p>\n While there are various varieties of unconscious bias, one that\u2019s most prevalent in the ad industry is association bias, Barker explains in this interview with Beet.TV at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.<\/p>\n \u201cYou associate and affiliate yourself with people who are like you,\u201d says Barker. \u201cThey might have worked at the same place, they might gone to the same school, they could even have grown up in the same area as you.\u201d<\/p>\n This creates a comfortable sense of community that keeps outsiders out. \u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to challenge people to do is step outside that comfort zone and start to work with people who are different.\u201d<\/p>\n Barker evokes comments at Cannes by renowned photographer Mario Testino, who told an audience that he feared early on that his Peruvian heritage would put him at a disadvantage. \u201cAnd that example shows that if people did have a bias against him because of that, look at the beautiful work we would have missed out on,\u201d Barker says.<\/p>\n