Page 42 - ADNews magazine March-April 2022

Profile
particularly in creative depart- ments. Van der Merwe backs the use of targets to achieve this.
“Targets are essential if you’re trying to transform something,” she says.
“Otherwise, you end up with a vague notion of change, where talking about the issue rather than making material differences, is regarded as progress.
“The presumption behind tar- gets/quotas is that it comes with compromise; that the people who make up the new ratio are, in some ways, deficient. If we real- ised that adding diverse individu- als into our businesses will attract outrageously new thinkers with ideas that shake up our businesses and offer up solutions that are energetically fresh, we’d all be clamouring for it.
“The other thing about targets is that it allows us to address over-cor- rections. Since coming to Australia, I’ve noticed how the marketing teams here are female-dominant. That’s just as worrisome to me as male-dominant creative depart- ment. Quotas give us a marker for balance that we can aim at.
M&C Saatchi Australia, where van der Merwe has been executive creative director since 2019, has implemented its own policies to support more work at work.
“We have arguably the best parental leave policy for women and men compared to any other place I’ve ever worked,” she says.
“The thinking is simple - paren- tal leave hinders women from re-entering the workplace if not offered equally to both new fathers and mothers. Beyond that, there is a strong culture of supporting par- ents with job sharing opportuni- ties and flexible work weeks.”
Another challenge for the indus- try van der Merwe notes since mov- ing to Australia in 2012 is the lack of camaraderie, particularly when compared to South Africa.
“The complete abuse hurled at agencies and work in the com- ments section of the trade press here is intense,” she says.
“I never had to deal with that in South Africa or Bahrain. I’ve had several young creatives actively ask not to have their work publicised, even though I know
“The power of advertising isn’t just persuasion. It is the ability to engage someone in a way that makes them feel something.”
Mandie van der Merwe
the work is good, because they don’t want to have to deal with the aggression associated with it.
“As an industry, we should be pretty embarrassed by that. Not to mention, I've seen work slated in the comments go on to pick up metal on the international stage. We don’t have an attitude of banding together behind work. It’s unhealthy, it disadvantages us, and it makes our clients fearful of braver work. Basically, stop being meanies. It’s hurting us all and no one’s benefitting from it.”
Van der Merwe credits a few professionals in the industry for guiding her throughout her career, including Joanne Thomas at The Jupiter Drawing Room, as well as Matty Burton and Dave Bowman, Russ Tucker, Tom Martin and Julian Schreiber, and Cam Blackley.
“And then there’s Avish Gordhan - my work and life partner,” she says.
“He is the person I talk to the most. He loves to debate and usually disagrees with me, about everything from ideas to who’s going to do the washing. It’s quite helpful to have a person challenge your thinking. It strengthens both your ideas and your resolve. But there’s one argument I never lose; I never do the washing.”
Throughout her career, van der Merwe has worked on special pro- jects that have demonstrated the power of advertising. For example, she recently worked on the Go Gentle Australia campaign which was followed by legislative change to assisted dying.
“The power of advertising isn’t just persuasion. It is the ability to engage someone in a way that makes them feel something,” van der Merwe says. “Emotion is everything. Even when that emotion is sad or negative. It has the power to cut through and make people act off their own volition. That doesn’t just apply to the highly charged subject of voluntary assisted dying. It applies to every time we’re expecting a person to be receptive
to something we’re trying to sell.
“Go Gentle Australia was an incredibly difficult project to work on,”
she says.
“There was an immense sense of responsibility to tell the story
honestly, provocatively and also with sensitivity. The stakes were also really high; Andrew Denton said to us at the outset that Victoria was the key. If the legislation passed there, the other States would follow. I felt an immense responsibility not to get it wrong. I am really proud of this work and what it contributed.”
Van der Merwe has made significant achievements in her career, including collecting more than 200 awards at shows including Cannes, D&AD, and the Effies. However, her main goal is to leave the industry in a better state than when she entered it.
“For me, that would rely on nailing the trifecta - excellent creative work, that works its socks off for my clients, all done without destroying people in the process,” she says.
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