Reviewing Cadillac's Don't You Dare... Speak?

Although not strictly a high tech ad, Cadillac's latest "Don't You Dare" commercial had enough high-tech references in it that I felt compelled to review it here.

Let's watch:



There are 10 stories in this one-minute commercial -- three from women, and seven from men. Thirty percent female coverage seems to be the norm in ads that feature multiple genders, which is a step up from the historical 17% in crowd scenes, but is still far less than the 50% of space that women occupy on the earth.

The ad focuses on people being told "don't you dare" do something, and then shows how they dared to do just that thing and found success with it.

The men were told don't you dare: play with your food, change the rules. get any big ideas, stay up all night on the computer, take that apart, play games with me.

While the women were told don't you dare: paint on the walls, tell stories, raise your voice.

It is a sad commentary on our society that "speaking up" is a dare for women, but sadly it's true. Still to have TWO of the three women's stories be about simply speaking (and the other one about expressing herself in the wrong place -- the walls)... That's even more sad.

Men are shown as being a prosthetics pioneer, a wearable tech innovator, fashion industry upstart, teen gastronomist, college admissions reformer, and national chess master. The women are a mixed media sculptor, a digital activist, and a biotech venture capitalist.

(Extra points for one of the women (Laura Deming) saying scientists were her superheroes. Too bad she dropped out of MIT to accept the Thiel Fellowship and go into the world of venture capitalism instead.)

But points taken off for showing no women in STEM-related careers beyond Laura. For example, there are many women in robotics that Cadillac could have shown in place of Easton LaChappelle.

So while I applaud this ad for its message, it didn't do all that it could have to further inspire women to new things.

Grade: C+.

#OscarsSoMale?

Tonight, I'm taking a look at the Oscars, since everyone else is. Especially since Chris Rock made the joke that there should be "black" Oscar categories the way that there are men's and women's categories -- as a way to ensure diversity.

Chris Rock apparently has a point. Because WITHOUT gendered awards, women might not get many Academy Awards either. Especially if there isn't a sequel to Mad Max: Fury Road next year, which boasted half of the women winners.

Let's start with the Sci-Tech awards, those poor little stepchildren who always get their own "special" event prior to the main event so as not to "bore" the viewing public.

Out of 33 winners this year, none -- that's right NONE -- were women. I was so surprised, I actually had to go back and count again.

By my count, of the non-gendered Academy Awards given out on television tonight, 10 were won by women and 29 were won by men, for a total score of 25.6%, almost perfectly mirroring the nominations.

The Nominee Count (for those who are counting): 44 women, 142 men
(Women got 23.7% of the non-gendered category nominations).
Best Picture: 7 women, 17 men
Best Animated Feature Film: 1 woman, 9 men
Directing: 0 women, 5 men
Cinematography: 0 women, 5 men
Costume Design: 4 women (if you count Sandy Powell twice), 1 man
Film Editing: 3 women, 3 men
Production Design: 4 women, 7 men
Visual Effects: 1 woman, 19 men
Screenplay (Adapted): 2 women, 4 men
Screenplay (Original): 2 women, 12 men
Documentary (Feature): 3 women, 8 men
Documentary (Short Subject): 3 women, 4 men
Makeup and Hairstyling: 4 women, 4 men
Original Score: 0 women, 5 men
Original Song: 2 women, 9 men
Animated Short Film: 2 women, 6 men
Live Action Short Film: 1 woman, 6 men
Sound Editing: 0 women, 8 men
Sound Mixing: 0 women, 15 men
Foreign Film (Director's gender): 0 women, 5 men

(I'm excluding the Governor’s Awards, given out last November, which went to two women and one man, because that doesn't quite feel "real". You can add them into the numbers if you like.)

PS - Happy to see Leo finally win! :)

Reviewing IBM's "Coping with Humans" ad

IBM is debuting two new ads at the Oscars: "Coping with Humans: A Support Group for Bots" and "Ridley Scott + IBM Watson on Images"

I can't really fault IBM for featuring Ridley Scott and not a female director in the Images spot, because our friends over at the Academy didn't even nominate any women directors. :-/

So let's take a look at "Coping with Humans":

 

First off, kudos for using Carrie Fisher. Love her. Not to mention the idea of her being a therapist cracks me up, for obvious reasons.

Although these are robots, the speaking ones do have voices, so I did my usual male-to-female ratio analysis (which might be a bit flawed, I admit). 7 speaking male robots (including Watson), 2 speaking women robots. Plus Ms. Fisher. 30%. Slightly above average for advertising, but still not 50%.

However, extra point for having the robot that just wants to dust be a male robot. It would have been nice to see one of the world-dominating robots be a woman. Or if IBM had made Watson female to begin with. Although I guess you can't can't compete with Apple's Siri that way?

Grade: C+.

Dear Lego: Your "Stay-At-Home Dad" Isn't All That Cool.

Let me first of all say that I love Lego. I have Lego models galore and there is no better way to spend a rainy afternoon than piecing together a Lego spaceship, or house, or whatever.

BUT... I'm very confused by the latest "hot" minifig announcement: "Stay-At-Home Dad".

First off, I'm not really sure what makes this guy a stay-at-home dad other than Lego telling us that he's one? 

I mean, he's dressed like pretty much every SF and Portland hipster guy... Although I guess he needs a manbun (Conveniently, a bun DOES come on several of my existing minifigs, so there will be some alterations going on very soon in my house)

Oh, waaaaait. He MUST be a stay-at-home dad because he's pushing a baby stroller. A WORKING dad would never push a baby stroller, right? I mean, sure SOMEONE has to push the stroller, but if both parents work, it would be the mom pushing it. OBVIOUSLY.

Also, the woman is supposed to be his "working businesswoman wife" but she's holding a freaking baby bottle. Really? 

We'll ignore for the minute that the bottle is so big that the baby would explode if it drank the whole thing. But why introduce a baby bottle at all? Why not give her an accessory (like a coffee cup) that she could use AWAY from the baby?

Oh, yes, that's right. Because even though she's in a business suit, she'd NEVER be away from her baby?

Seriously, Lego? You try, but you fail. A man pushing a baby stroller accompanying a woman holding a baby bottle doesn't really go very far in busting stereotypes.

Sigh. 

Grade: C

Ariel: Finally?

I'm going to change it up a bit today from my usual high-tech talk and talk about the ad that everyone's talking about.

In this ‪#‎SharetheLoad‬ campaign, Ariel India, P&G, and BBDO Worldwide show how fathers and husbands can take small steps (like doing laundry) to create more equal homes.

It's so freaking sad that this is making news, but ok. (By the way, the campaign's been going on for about a year now)

Let's watch it.



My first thought was: If you're feeling so guilty, why don't you get off your butt RIGHT NOW and help your daughter so her family can see it?

But, ok, you're gonna "help" your wife do the laundry later.

Because, you know, it's "HELPING" her, not just DOING something. When you do household chores, you are HELPING your wife, just like you HELP her with the children...

I mean, it's not your JOB but you want to HELP.

Sorry, getting off the soapbox now.

But it did make me want to take a look at Ariel's previous work to see how they might have CONTRIBUTED to the problem themselves. How about if ARIEL says "We're sorry. We were a huge part of the problem with our ads full of stereotypes. We won't ever do that again."

First, I'd like to point out that almost all of the "laundry tips" videos on Ariel India's YouTube channel still feature a woman's hands.

Secondly, let's look at a couple of other Ariel ads. Not gonna review them, just going to let them speak for themselves:

Ariel, you're trying. Now let's make a real difference and simply show men doing laundry without fanfare, shall we?

Grade? B.

LinkedIn's New Ad: Are We Really Closer Than We Think?

LinkedIn's first-ever TV ad will premiere during Sunday Night's Academy Awards. When I first watched it, I assumed that an astronaut was doing the talking:



Turns out, the voiceover is done by LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, but it could easily be mistaken for an astronaut's voice. I get it now, though. He's talking about fulfilling his aspirations - to be CEO of a large multi-national tech company (I guess). So I can't take points off for that.

There isn't much else to say about this ad, since the astronaut has no gender. Since the only voice is a voiceover from the CEO, I give this ad a "C" - it's average. Could have been worse :)

It does lead me to another point, though, which is closely related to my blog post about the Mobile World Congress.

If you are a male C-level executive, and you have an opportunity to speak at a conference, think for a moment and ask yourself: "Is there a woman in my company who would be equally qualified to speak about this subject?"

And, if there is, give her a chance once in a while. And if there isn't, start working on finding one.

Not everyone has to be Steve Jobs. And sometimes, it's actually better for your company if people hear more than one of your executive voices speaking.

PS - Side note: The LinkedIn executive team has 5 men, 2 women. Percentage: 28.5%, which is slightly above the average, although as usual, the two women are CMO and head of Talent (HR)

Women Don't Hold Up Half The Mobile World: They Hold Up 9.5%

Today, we review the Mobile World Congress. While everyone else was oohing and ahhing over the latest VR, robotics, IoT, and other mobile technologies, I've been taking a critical look at the Mobile World Congress event itself, particularly at the marketing on its website, as well as its speaker lineup.

First of all, I took a look at the Mobile World Congress preview video. And while there were so many people in it that I couldn't quite count them all, two things were starkly apparent: The video was largely dominated by men, with an average of less than 20% women shown in background shots, and not a single speaker in the video was a woman.

Then I took a look at the keynote speakers page. Out of 42 keynote speakers, there are only 4 women. Women may hold up half the world, but apparently they only hold up 9.5% of the mobile world.

And taking a look at the full conference agenda, it doesn't get much better. There are 14 non-keynote sessions, only 2 of which (14%) are even moderated by a woman.

The picture gets even worse when you look at the panel participants listed in the agenda. There is only one panel which has more than one woman panelist (2 out of 8 panelists), five panels where there is only one woman, and eight panels where there are NO women at all. Overall, there are 73 panel speakers, 7 of which are women, at 9.6%, eerily mirroring the keynote speaker situation.

Overall grade for this conference: D.

Unpacking Samsung's New "Unpacked" Ad

Samsung just dropped its new "Unpacked" ad online prior to Samsung's "Unpacked" event at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona:

 

Let's see how it stacks up in terms of its representation of women.

First off, Samsung gets decent marks in terms of depicting women as engineers.

In one scene, a woman collaborates with two male colleagues (33%!), although in a later shot, she is joined by one more man (25%).

In another scene, a solo woman in a lab environment tests out a Galaxy S -- I'll give the benefit of the doubt that she's one of the engineers on the project and say "Kudos!" to Samsung on that one.

Unfortunately, Samsung loses points for making the "lead" character a man (he appears at both the beginning and end of the video in the longest shots -- the most prime positions in an ad), for making a man handle the soldering iron and doing the smelting scene, and for making the entire Everest climbing team male (shame!)

Total identifiable men to women count is 18 men to 12 women, which is a much better ratio than in average ads -- 40% women.

Overall, I'll give this ad a "B-". With just a couple more tweaks, it could have been closer to an A -- keep trying, Samsung!

Still No Lines at the Women's Executive Washroom

A 2014 report by Fenwick and West shows that women hold just 11% of executive positions at Silicon Valley companies. I thought I'd dig in a bit deeper and see what the scores are for some of the most prominent tech companies.

First up, Facebook. Surely The House of LeanIn would be better right? Nope. Although Sheryl Sandberg is the Chief Operating Officer, she stands alone in the C-Suite with four other men. Score: 20%.

How about Twitter? Well, I'm not saying that this is the reason they are floundering right now, but of the 7 members of the Leadership Team, only 2 are women (the CMO and the Chief Counsel). Score: 22%

Apple? Apple splits their Leadership Team into two tiers. The C-level/SVP tier has 11 members, 1 of which is a woman (the SVP of Apple Retail). Tier 2 has 7 members, 2 of which are women (VP of Environment and VP of HR).  Score: 8% in Tier 1, 22% in Tier 2.

Don't even get me started on Intel. They have four tiers of leadership: Executive Office, Executive Vice Presidents, Senior Vice Presidents, and Corporate Vice Presidents. In the two "Executive" tiers, there are 5 men and 0 women. In the SVP tier, we find 13 men and 1 woman. In the CVP tier, women fare a little better -- there are 6. Out of 30. So, in the top 3 tiers, we have 5% women. In the lowest tier of management, we have 20%. Total Score: 14%.

Cisco also has a two-tiered system. The Executive Leadership Team sports 14 people, 5 of which are women. 36%. Not bad (although given that women are 50% of the world, the fact that I'm saying "Not bad" to 36% says something in and of itself). The "Senior Leadership Team" has 46 (!) people. 8 of which are women (21%). Grand total: 21.6%.

Oracle, which inexplicably has two CEOs (one of which *is* a woman, yay!), lists 31 executives on its leadership page, 5 of which are women. Total Score: 16%

eBay has 13 execs, 4 of which are women. 31% makes them the "winner" in my high tech survey.

I've been a VP-level exec for a bit less than a decade now, and this pretty much mirrors my experience working as an executive at Silicon Valley startups.

The company at which I presently work does the best job of any company at which I've worked. We have 11 execs, 4 of which are women, which at 36% makes us even better than eBay. (We also have an out-of-date exec page, which is why I didn't include a link).

My previous company was led by a woman; at our highest point, of the other C-level and VP-level execs, we had 8 men and 2 women, for a total of 27%. After I left, the mix had changed to having 1 woman CEO and 8 C-level and VP-level men -- in essence, no executive women except for the CEO. Total: 11%

Looking back even further in my executive career, I see figures of 12%, 8%, and 14% women. It's sure lonely out here!

How does your company stack up? Let me know in the comments!

*Note, all references are as of February 19, 2016. Maybe by the time you're reading this, things will be better.

Intel: Experience Business As Usual

At the Super Bowl and then subsequently at the Grammys, Intel premiered their "Intel: Experience Amazing" ad:



When I first saw this ad, I had three thoughts:

• Roll over (in your grave) Beethoven!
• I can't wait for the epic battle between the Intel swoosh and the Nike swoosh
• Hmm, let me go back and take a look at how Intel's diversity team did on this ad...

Well, I'm sad to report that there aren't any "role surprises" here. It's not the most egregious example I've seen, but still disappointing.

There were 17 men shown, 9 women (34%, so about twice the average, but still not 50%). (I'll admit, a couple of times where figures were shown in shadow, I had to guess at the gender, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, Intel.)

As usual, men get to handle pretty much all the computers in the ad, play all the video games, and participate in the competitive activities.

Women mostly do solo activities and are acted upon by the computers and men in the ad.

So overall, I give this ad a "C".

Would it have been THAT hard to let a woman solder? To show her driving the race car? To include ONE woman playing a video game?

More details:

In this ad, men and boys:
Hold a computer chip
Use a prosthetic hand
Drive a race car
Cheer on a race car
Ride fantastical beasts in a video game
Use a flying squirrel (bat) suit
Ride a BMX Bike
Rise up from a wheelchair
Solder onto a computer board
Play video games on a big stage in competition (three men playing in the shot, no women)
DJ at a dance club
Draw things on a woman's face using a computer

Women and girls:
Jump
Play the violin
Swim
Run in the forest
Look on while a boy uses a prosthetic hand
Dance while a man (and possibly a woman) monitor her on the computer
DJ in a studio in a short skirt with a pretty lamp on the table
Have beautiful things drawn on their face
Model and smile, covered in butterflies.

Seventeen Is Not Enough

I've often thought about how women were portrayed in advertising and how this shapes our opinions of them.  When I started my own career in marketing communications, I endeavored to always make sure that I took a critical look at our own materials with an eye toward pushing the boundaries of representation of both women and people of color.

Then, two years ago, I had the privilege of seeing Geena Davis speak at a YWCA luncheon. She talked about how the presence and portrayal of women in the media has some very interesting parallels to how women fare in the real world. 

She spoke about how the media has helped to subconsciously shape our reality. Women make up 50% of the global population, and yet the US has only achieved 20 percent female representation in Congress and women also make up only 16.9 percent of Fortune 500 corporate board seats. 

Now, consider this: on average, women and girls make up only 17 percent of crowd scenes in popular films -- and we've been conditioned to think this is normal. This is why on so many of your favorite shows, we don't think twice when most of the lead characters are men. And it's why, when we look around our own offices and website "our executive team" listings, we're not surprised to see four men (or more) for every woman.

This is how I came up with the title of this blog: Seventeen is not Enough. Well, that and the fact that pretty much every possible blogspot URL has been taken already.

I'll be writing reviews of ads, corporate videos, websites, and other media with an eye toward raising awareness of the portrayal and presence of women and people of color in them. If you're doing something similar, let me know and I'll cross promote your blog, too.