As our name implies and our mission states, we believe every company, and person, should be a work in progress. As such, we believe our job as a collection of individuals is to create an environment that promotes the personal and professional growth of everyone who spends time within our walls, and that also benefits those who we interact with outside. As we work to build a place we can be proud of now, and ten years from now, we will hold true to the belief that the job is never done and that it takes bold action, not just words, to prove what we believe.
As WIP continues to grow and evolve, we’ll be closely monitoring the demographic make-up of our agency, and we’ve set internal goals to generate real changes. Additionally, we have shared our data with AgencyDEI, who are on a mission to bring data transparency, accountability, knowledge-sharing and ultimately change to our industry.
Chris Edwards is an Executive Creative Director with an award-winning career spanning more than 25 years. He’s also the author of BALLS: It Takes Some to Get Some, a memoir that chronicles his pioneering gender transition which began back at a time before “transgender” was even a word. Chris is currently the ECD at Small Army in Boston and serves as a consultant to agencies and clients looking to reach a transgender audience authentically or adapt corporate policy and culture to be more inclusive.
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Keni Thacker is a 10-year diversity, equity, cultural, and inclusion change catalyst and one of Business Insiders' top DEI consultants who helps companies big and small show up with purpose where art and commerce meet and humanity often falls short. He is also the founder of 100 Roses From Concrete, a nonprofit organization that develops professionals of color in advertising, marketing media, and public relations.
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Jolly is a Senior Council trademark and intellectual property lawyer, with over 20 years of experience, working locally in Boulder at leading law firm Holland & Hart LLP. Previously Jolly spent more than 10 years as in-house counsel with L’Oreal. Jolly has been named to The National Black Lawyers Top 100 – Colorado, 2021 and is serving as a 2021 Fellow on the Legal Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD).
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We are currently working with our clients to roll out a vision for production and on camera talent that starts with reviewing the diversity data of each of our productions – to establish a baseline for measurement.
CHANGE
The people in our advertising should ultimately reflect our brands’ customers. Using our understanding of those customer bases, we’ve set goals for positive representational change in our on-camera casts. This starts at the concepting stage with a conscious effort to eliminate writing and comp bias, so that we can then open the aperture at the casting level and explore different family types, body types, differing abilities and gender roles.
RESPECT
We are seeking to continue to correct the inequities that exist when styling people of color – both hair and makeup and lighting – to show everyone in their true and best light when in front of the camera.