The power of feeling seen in advertising - Ade Rawcliffe, ITV

Ade joined ITV as Head of Diversity Commissioning in 2017. She was later promoted to Director of Creative Diversity, before taking on the role of Group Director of Diversity and Inclusion and joining the Management Board in 2020. She has responsibility for all diversity and inclusion related matters across the Group, including leading, developing and growing ITV’s Diversity and Inclusion strategy on and off-screen. Prior to joining ITV, Ade spent over 10 years at Channel 4, most recently as Creative Diversity Manager, where she supported and nurtured the careers of diverse creative talent and sought out and commissioned a slate of developments which encouraged diversity, risk-taking and innovation. Ade is currently a Trustee of BAFTA, Chair of BAFTA’s Learning and New Talent Committee, and a Trustee of the National Trust.

What we covered in this episode:

• From making Shirley Bassey’s tea to Director of Diversity & Inclusion at ITV
• The excitement of seeing a black person on screen in the 80’s
• Advice for how to get into TV
• Being inspired by the arrival of Channel 4
• How Ade created diversity on and off screen at Channel 4
• Thanks for the warm up – positioning the Paralympics in 2012
• How Channel 4 led the change throughout the entire industry
• How the Paralympic advertising beat the Olympics
• The impact of the pandemic on Diversity & Inclusion
• Talent is equally distributed so cast your net wide
• Hiring the best talent vs the people we are most familiar with
• You can’t be what you can’t see and the importance of role models on screen
• ITV’s role is to tell a story for everyone
• Telling someone’s story well rather than everyone’s story badly
• How off screen diversity has been transformed
• Learning about other people’s culture through drama
• The opportunity for more action on social class and disability
• Why we should stamp out unpaid work experience
• Top advice for creative Diversity change
• We are changed when we are seen as we are changed by what we see
• Proving the commercial case for Diversity in the Feeling Seen report
• What is good for society is also good for business
• Nike Toughest Athlete and the power of seeing black pregnant women on TV
• The power of the wonderful everyday inspiration from Ikea
• Why it will be good when we no longer have to reference a person’s race
• The importance of doing your cultural research
• Telling fresh stories can be a brilliant ways to stand out
• How the Boots ad makes you feel like real life holidays enjoying yourself
• Advice to Advertisers to be authentically diverse