Stop. Aren't we all in this together?
Amber is the Founder of The Edison Agency, a strategic design consultancy. She is also the President of The Creative Women’s Circle. If 2020 wasn’t hard enough, Amber and her team had to deal with the worst that our industry has to offer.
Words by Amber Bonney
A first-hand experience of the effects of throw-away comments and (mainly) male “banter.”
In 1997 I graduated from Swinburne University which at the time, was the leading Australian design institution. I had always known what career path I would take, following in my father’s printing, innovation and marketing footsteps. The journey hasn’t been easy and I have worked bloody hard for every accomplishment, award and role I have been given – never looking back or doubting my ability to overcome an obstacle or tackle a project that seemed insurmountably complex.
Fast forward 23 odd years and I’m a female business owner with an established and successful agency in a male dominated industry.
While the “me too” movement has shined a light on the entrenched patriarchal culture in business, it doesn’t appear to have changed poor behaviour.
In September this year my business, The Edison Agency, was subjected to a barrage of criticism, harassment and online bullying following the public launch of the new Arnott’s Group corporate identity design. This is a program we worked tirelessly on for over seven months and are immensely proud of – it was a privilege to be trusted with such a progress business project and no amount of ill-informed criticism will sway me from that sentiment.
Linkedin “commentary”
As trusted agency partners to the former Campbell Arnott’s Asia Pacific business, The Edison Agency were engaged to deliver a new visual identity solution that celebrated the businesses diversification and growth into emerging markets and signify the de-coupling of the Campbell’s ownership. This was an important project with executive level stakeholders and as such all hands were on deck in the agency to meeting the launch timelines.
THE CHALLENGE?
• Build a new identity that pays homage to the past but unites the family of leading consumers brands under a single corporate umbrella
• Leverage the iconic red from the Arnott’s consumer brand and make reference to Arnold the parrot as a symbolic gesture
• Create a solution that creates the foundation for future growth and also a reflection on the company’s legacy as one of Australia’s oldest and most trusted brands
THE SOLUTION:
The new identity system is proud and bold, fitting for a business with a strong commitment to sustainability, equality and diversity - the logo a symbol that captures genuine intent for positive change and celebrates over a century of hard work and innovation. This project was as much about cultural change as it was about design – the logo itself a mere artifact in what is a much bigger ecosystem of real people seeking genuine positive change.
I am proud to say that I have never entered into public debate about any brand that has launched or relaunched over the course of my professional career. Why? Because my subjective opinion bares no relevance on the success of a project based on what I like, what I think was a missed opportunity or what I think may or may not be successful.
My opinion, despite my training and expertise, is just my opinion without context to the brief, the vision of the business, the process, the insights and the stakeholder decision making process – all of which influence the outcomes of any brand project.
On the day that Arnott’s Group new identity launched there was much confusion – mostly from media outlets who didn’t read the facts. The fact was, and is, it wasn’t the relaunch of the consumer brand, the logo on Australia’s favorite Arnott’s biccies was never changing!
Fact, most of the brand comparisons used in the publishing on all media outlets were actually an old logo, not used on packaging since the 70’s and so the comparisons were not even realistic. Most consumers have no idea what the corporate brand looked like before, so the outrage at it changing was actually quite amusing.
One of my favourite pieces of “insight” from Phillippe Mouret on LinkedIn was “Bollocks to changing a brand for the sake of it! The value of a brand and its collaterals are built over time. Arnott’s is an iconic brand. The Rosella now looks like a parrot”.
An employee of The Arnott’s Group politely reponsed with this “Philippe Mouret it was and is actually a Mexican parrot on the consumer brand. No change there. This new (seemingly controversial) corporate logo has been developed for the new business which has Arnott’s Biscuits as its biggest component now followed by the Campbell’s Soup business across Asia; but has big ambitions locally and beyond, with the Arnott’s brand (and original parrot) and potentially without!” Whack.
Over the course of a 2 week period, I was harassed online across nearly every social and business platform from Tik Tok to LinkedIn.
Not only was this personally exhausting on-top of normal COVID-19 home schooling chaos and running a business BUT, the impact was felt far and wide. My family, our clients and my team – the people who had worked exceptionally hard for 7 months to bring a vision to life had their work torn down and their expertise put into question al within within the course of 48hour window.
I had one man who was anonymous threaten to punch me in the face over social media because he hated it so much.
I was exposed to my own industry peers, those people who were supposed to share like-minded views, are business owners or hold senior positions in others, people who should have known better. It seems to be a cultural past-time in the western world, to tear down those at the top with no thought to the impact this may cause. To slander my business, the Arnott’s Group business and the work based on nothing more than feeble design-wank subjectivity is really poor form.
When I say people, let me be clear – these were predominantly men. Privileged white men who believe they have the right to behave poorly, throw tantrums and rule the industry- it’s truly shameful.
It’s these men who bring disrepute to our industry – who maintain clichés that take decades to break and who prevent women and people of minority groups from being brave and putting themselves out there with their own businesses, work and ideas.
This project was the straw that broke me, not broke as in made me feel weaker or like a victim, but broke in a sense that I feel more determined than ever to eradicate this vermin-like behaviour and bring repute back to our industry. Critical thinking and discussion is important. Discussing the value of work with all the facts is an important part of our education and industry – I am not suggesting we shouldn’t have a voice or make public commentary.
In Australia, we have a right to freely express our opinion without interference and restriction but with those liberties come responsibilities. We are party to seven core international human rights treaties (International Covenant on Civil and Political Right) and within those treaties it outlines that freedom of opinion is limited by any content that is seen to be derogatory on the grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion or social origin', defaming of reputation, a threat to national security, inciting violence or harassment and detrimental to public health.
While none of what I or the team at The Edison Agency could be seen as a national security threat, we did experience defaming of reputation, harassment and violent threats. I can’t speak for the broader team but I was personally offended, hurt and concerned for how this might impact my livelihood. And what for? Change. That’s it – something changed and people didn’t like it. They didn’t like it because they didn’t like the way it looked, they didn’t understand it or because they were not in control - they didn’t do it themselves and they feel they could have – should have.
Design Director, Brian Llagas (a colleague of Amber) shares his thoughts and feelings.
Alas, it is not all doom and gloom. The people that matter have shown themselves, have stepped up and stepped in.
I received dozens of messages, calls and emails from industry peers, partners and clients who were showing their support, who recognized that we were under pressure and wanted to make a connection. I heard from industry leaders I have never met personally but always respected, some of which were privileged white men!
These people gave me faith that those that were humble, brave and strong are willing to stand up for things they believed in – and in our case, it was the right to publish work without being harassed, defamed and physically threatened.
If we can’t stand together as an industry, show empathy, respect and professional courtesy then we are at risk of devaluing, undercutting and exploiting each other to get ahead.
In the age where collaboration is the buzz word in design, its about time we put our money where our mouth is and start living our truth.
The truth is, behind every brand relaunch are multiple businesses. Within each of those business are real people, with real families and real human emotions and vulnerabilities.
