I work at an agency that asks women, especially women of color, to attend client meetings to "show face." Does this happen at other agencies? How offended should I be?

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If it’s just to “show face,” then yes - you should for sure be offended. I’d take it as an opportunity to be an active voice in the room, show off your expertise and counsel and be more than just a face.

likesmarthelpful

Happened to me all the time until I actually spoke up at a meeting with a remix to an idea and ended up taking the business from the creative director assigned to it because the client liked my BRAIN versus my skin color.

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😡🙋‍♀️ I was once told to go to the studio to have my headshots taken. I asked what it was for (agency didn't have it on website and for internal purposes we had badge photos). They said it was a new biz pitch and they needed it for the slide that showed the team who was working on it. Thinking I had been picked for this business I went and had the pics taken. Followed up a few weeks later with my boss only to find that they regularly did that to show diversity of gender and race on the team and there wasn't a plan to have me work on that brand. As a woman of color I was so angry that my likeness had been used just to sell the agency. And once they had my picture who knows what other pitches it was put into for token purposes.

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This isnt ok

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My agency does this regularly. We actually included someone who doesn’t work at the agency anymore in a pitch deck because we keep losing minorities.

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VP1 is much more helpful. Im just angry for you.

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As corporate America gets dragged kicking and screaming into a more progressive society, they’ll always find ways to corporate-up and ruin literally everything. All from a refusal to change their ways and motivations.

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Actually this is Droga 😑

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Well my mouth just fell open. Be offended. Also, you should look into other agencies. You don’t deserve to be treated like a prop.

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And I know you’re at an agency, but I lump any company with such an oblivious stance on diversity and inclusion into the bucket of “corporate America.”

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The CEO stopped me in a hallway to congratulate me on XYZ pitch. I was confused and said I didn’t work on it.. he explained further. Turns out he had confused me with another WOC 😐

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This is terrible. Casting is certainly important for some meetings but not just to literally mix it up. Everyone should have a role and a real purpose. Sorry for those who work at places that need to fake it like this.

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As strategists One of our jobs is to see and to be able to take advantage of predicable human behavior. I would think that this is one of the situations we’re supposed to spot and take advantage of

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What the actual hell...???

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Happens at my agency too. “Let’s talk casting” includes kicking people off (a slide) to fill quotas. I hate being a quota.

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Yup - asked to sit in on a pitch that I didn’t even know we were pitching, the day of, because I’m a Hispanic woman... barely knew what it was for. So I sat there and smiled pretty and quit 5 months after

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As a POC, I've been asked more than once to participate in photo shoots and videos to represent diversity. That has never offended me because otherwise, the company would just go out and pay a model to do the same thing. However, asking you to attend a client meeting to give the impression that your company values your ideas when they don't is a different matter.

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Oh this happens more frequently than you would think, especially as more of these companies whose target markets are black women get snapped up by multi nationals. I’ve seen the POC essentially be assigned all the pitch work and then when the biz is won, not even be placed on the account. They’ll keep ONE and act like they did the world a favor.

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You work here too?

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🤮 I’m a WoC as well and have been asked to be in pitches because I’m a woman, not because of my work experience. It’s insulting.

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