Women’s Work

AUCKLAND, Today: NZ women photographers collective Women’s Work, with Saatchi & Saatchi, has produced a campaign that challenges ad-agency creative departments.

Women’s Work creative director Victoria Baldwin said: “We admit that you won’t have seen our campaign before seeing our case study – because frankly, it never ran.

“It may sound nonsensical, however it’s a calculated approach to get the collective’s challenging message directly in the faces of advertising agencies and their creative departments.”

The case study film features the previously unseen campaign of 24 posters that highlight the disturbing fact that of all the photography used in advertising less than 15% is shot by women.

It then goes further by calling out agencies, asking them to start deliberately and consciously put women photographers on their shortlists for future projects.

“We asked Saatchi to help promote our NZ women photographers. They, however, suggested going bigger by using this opportunity to highlight this global issue of unconscious bias to the world, and so The Case Study Project was born.”

“We’ve calculated that less than 15% of photographers in advertising are women,” Baldwin says. “But realistically, the percentage globally is probably less than half that.

“We asked Saatchi & Saatchi to help promote our talented New Zealand women photographers. They, however, suggested going bigger by using this opportunity to highlight this global issue of unconscious bias to the world, and so The Case Study Project was born.”

Saatchi NZ CCO Steve Cochran said: “Our deliberate and transparent ambition for this campaign is to enter into Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in order to get our message directly in front of the creative community’s most influential leaders.

“In, what might sound very meta, our case study about our ads is actually our ad.

“Some might say creating a case study about ads that never ran to enter into an award show is a bit cynical or bending rules.

“The Case Study Project has been released online before the Cannes cut-off deadline to make sure it qualifies as a piece of work in itself.”

“But we think there’s poetic irony in using an unseen advertising campaign featuring women’s photography to highlight that fact women’s photography in advertising is just that – relatively unseen.

Saatchi NZ CD Kristal Knight, CD at Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand said: “Our global CCO, Kate Stanners, has advocated for all Saatchi & Saatchi offices around the world to make women a consideration on any pitch list, both photographers and directors.

“So The Case Study Project is about challenging ourselves and every other agency to do that.

“Yes, we’ve called out numerous globally renowned agencies with a blatant shotgun approach to purely get attention and provoke – but what we are really looking to do here is to create real, tangible change.”

The Case Study Project has been released online before the Cannes cut-off deadline to make sure it qualifies as a piece of work in itself.

• View the video below

About Women’s Work
Women’s Work is a collective of female photographers who want to shine a light on the underrepresentation of women, women identifying and non-binary people in commercial photography. The hope is that by opening this conversation, by highlighting inequality, and equipping women and non-binary photographers with opportunity, we can create a level playing field in our industry.

• www.womenswork.photography