Cindy Gallop calls for adland to wield financial power against tech giants

In the past couple of weeks, Mark Zuckerberg has shown us exactly who he is.

Meta has axed fact-checking and content moderation, with, in its internal guidelines, some truly horrific statements of exactly what kind of hate speech is now considered acceptable—in line with right-wing Silicon Valley billionaires’ belief in ‘free speech for me but not for thee’. It’s abandoning all pretence at DEI in its hiring and retention policies. Zuckerberg has said that he feels Meta needs more "masculine energy", because it’s good if a culture "celebrates aggression a bit more". Like his fellow tech titans Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, he’s kneeling at Trump’s feet, kissing the ring, and obeying in advance.

There’s never been a better time for the advertising industry to show exactly who we are. But this isn’t an appeal for our industry to ‘do the right thing’. Yes, we should, but I’m under no illusion that such an appeal would actually work. Instead, this is an appeal for our industry to do four things that will make agencies, holding companies and our clients a lot more money.

Do I have your attention now?

1. Flex our financial muscle

We’ve colluded in our own devaluation for decades—never more than with the Silicon Valley giants. People value you at the value you are seen to put on yourself, and we have not understood and projected the extraordinary value that we have. We are the business model for the internet. We are the reason Meta makes the billions it does. We are the reason for Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth, and why he wields the power he does. He would not be where he is today without advertising.

But we gave that power away. For years, we’ve been pathetically grateful that these platforms have allowed us to advertise on them, rather than realising we’re in a position to call the shots. So—time to bring some ‘masculine energy’ and some ‘aggression’ to the table, to do the deals we want on our terms. Because without us, Meta and every other giant tech platform that relies on advertising is screwed.

Cindy Gallop, the inaugural jury president for the Glass Lion at Cannes 2024 during her keynote session

2. Be creative about what WE want

Instead of automatically going, “We have to be on—<platform name goes here>—why not start from the other end? We pride ourselves on extremely ingenious strategy and highly creative execution. Use that ingenuity and creativity to decide what the optimum brand experience/use of technology/campaign would be for our clients, demand that, and set our own terms and conditions. We’re entirely capable as an industry of developing far more creatively compelling ad products and approaches than the ones we’re being forcefed.

3. Protect our consumers

In a January 14 article by Katie Notopoulos for Business Insider titled, ‘Mark Zuckerberg says he wants more ‘masculine energy’ at Meta. So why don’t more men use Facebook?’, she writes, “I do worry that people have forgotten something that seems clear to me: Facebook is powered by feminine energy.”

Research shows that women are more active on Facebook and Instagram than men. Meta is what it is today because of its female users. And women, let us not forget, are our target for all advertising—as the primary purchasers and influencers of purchases of everything.

Content moderation keeps girls and women safe. Remove it, and sexism, misogyny and rape culture run rampant unchecked.

We make more money when we protect our consumers, stand up for them, and demand better user experiences for them that keep them safe, happy, and more receptive to the messages we and our clients want to send them, and the brands and products we and our clients want them to buy.

4. Fund the female lens on advertising and tech

Six years ago, I spoke at Social Media Week New York, where I told the audience that existing social media platforms, no matter how gigantic, could be disrupted and toppled by the female/Black/of colour/LGBTQ/disabled/’other’ founders who build the safe social platforms of the future. That opportunity is even greater now, as the recent success of BlueSky demonstrates.

For years I’ve exhorted the women of the ad industry to build adtech ventures—because adtech is as male-dominated as advertising and tech. We are constantly targeted and sold to through the male lens—when we know how to sell to ourselves.

This isn’t just something I advocate for—I’m doing this myself because I see the huge opportunity. I shared my idea for HereForTheAds in my Cannes Lions keynote last year on ‘How To Change Advertising For the Better, Fast’—it’s adtech designed to sell by making people love ads. Shocker, right?

Now is the time for our industry to invest in a different future for advertising—because we have not even begun to see how much safer, better, happier, more effective, and more lucrative that future could be when it’s powered by feminine energy, designed and built through the female lens at scale.

You may have seen Rebecca Shaw’s The Guardian article that went viral, thanks to the headline, ‘I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down—I just didn’t expect them to be such losers.’ She starts with, ‘Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg’s desperation to be cool as they suck up to Donald Trump is so cringe it makes my skin crawl.” She ends with, “It’s time for us to start getting revenge on the nerds.”

It’s time for the revenge of the adpeople.

Cindy Gallop is an advertising veteran, the founder of MakeLoveNotPorn, and an advocate for gender equality and diversity.