Adland without a woman #WomensDay2017 - won't happen.

As you may have noticed, companies and ad agencies like Zambezi are shutting down for A Day Without Women. Women's websites, some of them launched by the VC funding handed to men by other men, are taking the day off because the editorial staff are mainly women. Both Bustle and its sister site, Romper, have published posts tonight explaining why there will be no posts tomorrow. Editor in chief Kate Ward writes: “Without our editorial team, which is 97 percent female, we would be unable to produce a site that aims to provide support and a megaphone for women to express how they’re feeling about the world.” Much to peoples' relief, Jezebel won't tear an irrelevant hole into someone's ad campaign tomorrow, calling it sexist as per their MO either, as they strike in support for women. Wait, correction - the two male reporters of Jezebel will write posts while the female reporters stay home. MTV are at least adding a little creativity to the day: they're turning their logo upside down, making the Mtv a Wtv. Let's be honest: it hasn't been a channel for music for decades now. I doubt anyone will notice. Since women hold the social media positions, most of their channels will be silent tomorrow.

 

 

With all of these people taking a day off, you might be asking--why aren't I? Those who know me know that I'm egalitarian and logical. The photo at the top of this post shows how I literally built the machines that this website runs on, because if you can't get it done right by others you just have to do it yourself. I'm sure I can get people at Rackspace or Memset to vouch for the fact that I do fix things myself a lot. And fascinatingly enough, I didn't need a STEM degree. Either way, I will not be ignored when I have spent this many years building the worlds largest super bowl commercials archive and historical resource for advertising geeks. The real reason I'm not taking the day off, or making Adland silent, is because we have a motto here: Everyone gets their work critiqued on equal grounds. Man or woman, friend or foe. Good or bad. All that matters is the work produced, and the people who make that work happen. So while the rest of the world goes dark and hides women away, we suggest you check out out interviews with women like Anne-Cécile Tauleigne, Antoaneta Metchanova, Esther Clerehan, Laura Jordan Bambach, Dena Walker, Kim Rushton, Jill Spradley, Sunset Sealy, Jane Goldman, and watch tens of thousands of commercials in our archive that women made vital contributions to. Instead of pretending there's A Day Without Women, do this woman a favour: take the time to read what women are up to in this industry. Despite what you've heard, there are many of them. And the most talented ones are doing more than just holding conferences. Maybe when the volume of the BS is turned down to zero tomorrow, people will finally realize this. And if you haven't yet already, check out our latest article Syncsmith partners with shesaid.so to commission an all female playlist, celebrating some of the most cutting edge female musicians out there. And download a the free mix courtesy of Kayla Painter. I've been grooving to it all night. The truth is that Adland without a woman, wouldn't exist. Because none of us would exist, if it weren't for our mothers before us.

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Tracy Levitz's picture

When I considered the women I'd be letting down if I didn't get my work done today...

Dabitch's picture

Yeah, my mom is a travel agent for guilt trips too. *wink* Heyooo!

But seriously, generations before us fought to get the rights to vote (not to work, women always worked, often unpaid). A much better show of power for women by women would be to make sure 100% of women eligible to vote, voted.

In the USA only 65.7% of eligible female voters voted in the 2008 election. Sad.