AdNews Emerging Leaders Grand Prix winner Charlotte Berry encourages advertising professionals to use their roles to change the world.
During a ceremony at The State Library of Victoria, this year’s top 20 Emerging Leaders were revealed with Howatson+Co (formerly Innocean) copywriter Charlotte Berry securing the top gong.
Berry, normally full of chat, was almost speechless as she accepted her award.
"I feel like I shouldn't be up here. I don't know if that's a really female thing to say, so maybe I should take it back, but I feel beyond grateful," Berry said.
"I think we're in this industry that can really change how people live in the world, the way that people see things and understand things.
"There was a time in my life a couple of years ago that I started feeling bad about working in an industry that I thought represented everything that could be bad about the world like capitalism and consumerism.
"But one of my old bosses said to me: 'Well do you want to live in a commune'?"
The answer was obvious to Berry so instead she uses her role to change the world.
At 21, Berry became the youngest Cannes Young Lions winner in history. As a senior creative, Charlotte has written an ARIA-winning song, changed how female pro-surfers are discovered, launched a distillery on an island and opened an Australian Museum exhibition.
She is a founding member of Fck-the-Cupcakes, she created “Be-the-Change” to engage men in gender equality and is proactive in mentoring the next generation of creatives.
"I genuinely believe there's so many problems that exist today that still exist because people either don't understand them or don't have empathy to be able to understand why they need to change," Berry said.
"Every person in this room has the ability to convince people to change their minds about things.
"There's so many incredible people in our industry like, let's use our positions.
"If we can change just one person's mind about something, then that is huge, because today there are a lot of problems that need solving, and that's our jobs."
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