Every few months, the headlines appear: the first woman CEO, the first woman creative director, the first woman in a particular role. It’s meant to celebrate progress, but it also reminds us that women are still treated as exceptions. The same thing happens inside our industry. We congratulate ourselves for putting more women in leadership roles, but we rarely ask the harder question: are they being listened to?
Representation is the starting point, but representation without impact means nothing. It’s one thing to count how many women sit at the table, but another to ask whether their voices are shaping strategy, creative, and the way agencies work.
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As strategists, we know better than anyone that numbers can be misleading. Ten million impressions don’t mean a campaign worked. Reach doesn’t mean relevance. It’s the same thing with DEI: headcount doesn’t equal impact. If women are in the room but nothing about the work changes, then what have we really achieved?
This is where advertising risks falling and becomes a reflection of empty promises. The Women’s Day films. The panel discussions. The “first woman to” headlines. They all look good in case studies, but they don’t change a thing. In fact, if we keep highlighting who’s the “first,” we keep reinforcing the idea that women are unusual in these spaces. Thats why we should stop showing progress by treating women as exceptions and start showing that their presence in such positions is actually normal; so normal that it no longer makes the news!
Now let’s look at the work itself, at how our industry is shaping the narrative. For years, advertising in the region has portrayed women as superheroes! They are the perfect mothers, the flawless professionals who can do it all. These stories look great, but they don’t reflect reality. And while we repeat them, culture has already moved on.
Music for example! The song “Messy” by British singer Lola Young resonated globally because it admitted life is chaotic, it showed women in a way that feels relatable. Miley Cyrus dropped “Flowers” which became an anthem because it gave women permission to celebrate independence without pretending to be perfect. We’re seeing it all over social media, women are building influence by showing their stretch marks, their contradictions, their real lives; and you know what? Audiences are rewarding that honesty.
If TikTok creators with zero budgets are telling more authentic stories than our million dollar productions, then something is broken. Advertising used to lead culture. Today, culture is leading advertising; and that’s a dangerous place for our industry to be.
But let’s stop being pessimistic, there are examples that show us the way. Nike’s “What Will They Say About You?” stood out because it showed us the judgment women face every day in this region. It was a true reflection of society, and it made people uncomfortable in the right way. That’s what advertising can do when it’s brave enough.
Closer to home, stc Play released an ad “Every Gamer Has a Place” where they showed how gaming which is directly linked to male players is inclusive to everyone. The campaign didn’t fall into the trap of saying “women are gamers too”, it simply widened the frame and showed us that everyone belongs, kids, professionals, women, mothers etc. It had a subtle approach that made the ad more powerful.
These are some of the exceptions, but most campaigns still fall into the trap of glorification. Women are either presented as superhuman or shown as symbols. We rarely see them as layered, contradictory, or simply human. And this is the shift we need to make.
The real risk today is irrelevance. If audiences feel that advertising doesn’t reflect them, they will ignore us. And irrelevance is the worst fate for this industry.
So, if we’re serious about women in advertising, let’s change how we measure success. Let’s stop focusing on how many women hold leadership titles and start showing how much their voices shape the work. We have to step away from just showing women in ads and start looking into what stories we want to say about them. And lastly, let’s stop celebrating the many “firsts” and start acknowledging that it’s the norm. That’s when advertising stops clapping for itself and starts actually leading the conversation again.
By Farah Antar, Senior Strategy Officer, VML KSA.
