Orci’s Diego Andrade on why advertising needs more queer leaders

Ad Age is marking Pride Month 2024 with our Honoring Creative Excellence package, for which we asked members of the LGBTQ+ creative community to write about pivotal projects or turning points in their careers. (Read the introduction and all the essays here.) Today, guest editor Diego Andrade, executive creative director at Orci, writes about why role models are crucial to expanding diverse representation in the industry. In the context of Pride season, I’m reflecting on the journey it took to not only discover but embrace my queer identity. While in this headspace, I tend to think of my grandfather’s late brother, Armando. He was an openly gay man in Mexico at a time when almost everybody around him wasn’t exactly open to the idea. Armando was my blueprint, my example to follow—my trailblazer. For a scared kid in the closet, he was living proof that I could live a long, fulfilling and happy life as an openly queer person, despite rejection or discrimination. Also read: A celebration of creative excellence for Pride Month 2024 Because he did it before me, that meant I could do it, too. While Armando was a lifeline in my personal journey, such a blueprint was somewhat missing for me in my professional journey as an openly queer creative executive in advertising. From intern to associate creative director, all of the senior leadership personnel I encountered agency-side—colleagues, vendors, and directors—were all seemingly cisgender and heterosexual. 40 under 40 entries are open The final deadline for nominations is Aug. 2 Enter here Don’t get me wrong: I was fortunate enough to work in an environment that generally affirmed me as a queer person, and part of me felt fulfilled by the mission of authentically representing my community and culture as a Latino. But I didn’t really see my full self in the marketing I was working on or in the future roles I aspired to. I found myself code-switching, trying to emulate the qualities of others unlike myself because that was what leadership looked like to me. Later in my career, I transitioned out of the agency world into a role at a media publisher, creating original social content and IP with differing degrees of brand partner involvement—which was definitely not traditional advertising. I had the chance to work closely with other queer Latine folks and tell overtly queer stories in my creative, and also have my first queer boss. My fully realized self, the intersections of my queer and Latine identities, the self-awareness that comes with having to think so critically about your place in the world at an early age—suddenly they felt like a superpower, instead of a liability or something incidental to my profession. This era of my career unlocked a lot of my potential. I found a spark I didn’t know I was missing that drove me to tap into the skills I developed as a marketer and push myself further as a creative. I grew into a leader. I found, managed and mentored other queer creatives. And ultimately, I strove to be the lifeline that I had once been looking for. Finding corporate queer leadership remains an uphill battle. While queer people make up almost 6% of the U.S. workforce, they comprise only .4% of Fortune 500 leaders. In 2022, that was 26 out of 5,670 board seats. And only two of those were queer people of color. But for marketers—and adland especially—the lack of queer leadership is more than just an oversight, it’s a liability. Ad Age Small Agency Conference & Awards Join us July 23 & 24 in Boston Learn more here For one, even if you’re not marketing directly to LGBTQ segments, studies show that the vast majority of non-LGBTQ consumers view brands with inclusive advertising more favorably. Pulling off that representation requires having that cultural expertise in your leadership structure. And most strikingly, younger generations are increasingly queer. More than 11% of millennials and nearly 25% of Generation Zers self-identify as LGBTQ. A wake-up call to the industry? I hope so. As a (still) openly queer advertising executive who has risen the ranks to become an executive creative director, I still see a lack of queerness in agency leadership. I still find myself the only queer voice in a lot of rooms. So, I recognize just how crucial queer representation in leadership can be for both current and future generations. Such that I’ve recommitted myself to our agency’s multisegment marketing mission with the understanding that people shouldn’t have to leave our industry to see themselves reflected in their leaders or abandon advertising to find the sort of fulfillment that I found. The future queer leaders of our industry need to know that they can attain these roles and that they can drive change—especially in the multicultural sectors of our industry, as our nation becomes increasingly intersectional. I do my best to be open and transparent as a queer Latino leader to show them that it is possible. Because I did it before them. And that means they can, too. See all of Ad Age’s 2024 Creativity Award winners here

Orci’s Diego Andrade on why advertising needs more queer leaders

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