EDITORIAL: Collaboration can help sell creativity.(Editorial)

One of the most depressing shortcomings of Britain's ad industry has been its failure to translate fine words into action on too many fundamental issues. For years, its most enlightened voices have spoken out about how badly the odds are stacked against women trying to rise through the creative department ranks. Indeed, Peter Souter put the matter at the top of his agenda during his recent D&AD presidency.

Now new IPA census figures show how righting such scandalous wrong is like pushing water uphill. For all the good intentions, 87 per cent of art directors and 80 per cent of copywriters are men. It doesn't auger well for the declared intent of D&AD's president-elect, Nick Bell, to commit the organisation to a programme of educating young clients on how to buy creativity.

That's not to say Bell's initiative doesn't deserve to succeed. Far from it. Years of under-investment in education and training has not only resulted in a growing number of nervous young marketers but agency staff who don't inspire the confidence to help them make their decisions. Hardly surprising that creative ideas get strangled at birth, research results become an unhealthy prop and the instinct to play it safe is overwhelming.

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