600 and Rising is a non-profit initiative formed in June of 2020 by a group of Black advertising industry professionals with a mission to advocate for and advance Black advertising talent. The group calls on agencies to #CommitToChange by increasing Black and POC representation across the board in order to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive advertising industry.
In order to do this, participating agencies were asked to audit — and then publicly share — diversity hiring data. Led by Senior Project Manager Loreann Talbo and our DEIA working group, CLEVER gathered self-reported diversity data from our staff and compiled it. We’re making it public today:
Click to view complete diversity data.
So what have we learned? The data has underscored that CLEVER has been participating in a broken system which perpetuates white supremacy and patriarchy. Being transparent about our hiring data is one way we can all hold ourselves accountable to addressing this problem. It also lets you know that we are a company committed to anti-racism work and to social change. We can’t make our company — or our network — more diverse, equitable, and inclusive until we understand where we are today. We have begun this work, but know we have more to do.
Moving forward, we will work intentionally to create a company where all employees can be their most empowered, authentic, and exceptional selves. We commit to a new diverse and equitable future for our agency and the industry at-large. Our commitments include, but are not limited to:
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Attracting, hiring, retaining, and promoting Black and POC talent.
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Hiring more Black and POC talent across all departments and ensuring that demographic diversity is present across all levels within our company.
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Committing to reporting diversity data annually, including gender, race/ethnicity, seniority, and department.
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Prioritizing social impact in our work.
We do this work knowing this is just the beginning. Our commitments will require our active evaluation and restructuring within CLEVER and the industry. We will not be complacent in this endeavor and we encourage all advertising agencies, and all of our partners, to do the same.
As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out. We’d love to hear from you about our ongoing commitments, and your feedback is always welcome.
With gratitude,
Cat, Kristy, and Stefania