Innocean, creators of Fck the Cupcakes, and Paper Moose, a B-Corp purpose-led agency, have developed a survey for the creative community to understand how the industry is interacting with other people’s work and its impact.
Around 28% of the ad industry are affected by an ongoing mental health condition and one in three people are not disclosing this to their employer. Research from Mentally Healthy shows more than half of the members of the industry suffer from anxiety or depression at a scale that is unhealthy.
Giving good creative feedback is an art and yet important in the quest for creating great work, but the impact of negative, unconstructive feedback on each other’s work may be profoundly affecting the advertising industry and adding to the talent crisis.
As a first step, the 'drop the shade' initiative aims to set industry best-practice and resources by promoting positive creative feedback
The survey collects individual experiences to help fully understand the the impact of receiving feedback on their work.
The findings will be analysed to produce a report on the state of creative feedback and its impact with the ambition to receive industry-wide endorsement to create a voluntary code of conduct across agencies and publishers.
Jasmin Bedir, CEO at Innocean, said the industry can do a lot better in collectively celebrating the thinking and craft that goes into the work.
"Tearing each other down makes us smaller in many ways," Bedir said.
Jeremy Willmott, creative director at Paper Moose, said he has seen the effects, first-hand, of creatives receiving poor feedback on their ideas or reading anonymous feedback online about their work.
"Words really do sting," Willmott said.
"But most creative leaders never get any formal training in how to give good feedback and we don’t hold ourselves accountable, as an industry, to a code of standards, so we thought it was time we do something about it.”
The survey is live until September 22.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.