Ad Leaders Launch Smelly Lunch Stories to Improve Cultural Diversity in C-Suites

Four advertising leaders have launched Smelly Lunch Stories, an initiative to increase the number of people from culturally diverse backgrounds in C-suite positions through the power of sharing stories and food.

Graham Alvarez-Jarratt, strategy partner at Dentsu Creative, told LBB that he and his co-founders - Linda Fagerlund, Michelle Miroforidis, and An Le - have been talking about adland’s lack of cultural diversity for years, as friends and colleagues, after work and on weekends. He noted that while this project is taking up their spare time, it’s more than a side hustle. “This is so integral to who we are as individuals.”

The group wants to bring the industry together over a meal, with the first event taking place at Kyiv Social in Sydney’s Chippendale on 31 October, featuring a panel including Gambol Creative’s Camey O’Keefe, Pedestrian and Linkby co-founder Chris Wirasinha, WPP AUNZ president Rose Herceg, and Smelly Lunch Stories co-founder and head of brand marketing at BWS An Le.

Graham works at a creative agency, Linda is chief strategy officer at media agency Mediahub, Michelle is head of connections strategy at creative agency It’s Friday, and An is a marketer. As Graham put it, “even though we're in different parts of the industry, we're all seeing somewhat similar things.”

“We're all at a relatively similar age and part of our career, and it was a recognition that the more we were progressing in our careers, the higher up the ladder we were getting, the more we confronted the same issue,” Graham said.

“The power of conversation and the power of just telling stories was so central to what we're doing, because it very much started with just a shared recognition that we were talking about the same things, or feeling the same things.”

The data backs up their anecdotal experience. Advertising Council Australia’s most recent Create Space census revealed that while 29% of people in entry-level positions are from ethnically diverse backgrounds - “We're not necessarily doing a bad job as an industry recruiting people,” Graham noted, “or being attractive to people who are from ethnic minorities” - this figure drops to 12% in the C-suite.

The issue “becomes much more visible or invisible, depending on how you look at it” the further you progress in your career, Graham said. 

“You can get your foot into the door, but at some point those doors start closing.”

The 2024 Create Space census also showed that 1 in 5 people who identified as being an ethnic minority do not feel that they belong at their company. 

While the issue becomes more pronounced the more you ascend in advertising, it’s one that starts in childhood.

Graham is Filipino and Uruguayan. “My mum's Filipino, and when she made my lunch growing up, she would put something called Bagoóng [a fermented paste made of fish or shrimp] in there.

“Someone comments on that and goes, 'What's that? What's that smell?' That's one of the first signals that [makes] you go, 'Huh, I don't look like everyone, or my parents are from a different place. The kind of food that I eat is different.'

“As a kid, that's one of those things that makes you kind of shrink.”

That’s where Smelly Lunch Stories got its name, and why the group wants to centre conversation and food in its events: “Food is a symbol of our othering, a symbol that we are different, and maybe, implicitly, a symbol that we're not as good. [That] is something that we're trying to reclaim.”

While the format of the event series may evolve over time, “the non-negotiable for us is food has to be there.”

The co-founders have signed on UrbanList as a partner for the series, which will initially focus on Sydney, where they are based. The lifestyle publisher said the request was met with “an immediate and enthusiastic yes.”

“Our mission is to champion a more diverse and inclusive media landscape, and we proudly lead by example,” Jacqui La’Brooy, chief commercial officer at Urban List said.

“Partnering with SLS allows us to create meaningful impact and amplify voices within our industry, aligning perfectly with our values.” 

The goal is for a roster of the industry’s prominent and emerging leaders to tell their own smelly lunch stories in restaurants across the city. The group emphasises that everyone is welcome, including industry execs and allies who want to make their workplaces better.

Graham said the request is to “listen loudly to what people are saying. Have an open heart about this. Just because it's a different story to one that you're used to doesn't mean that it's any less valuable … [and] also think about how you are creating a safe environment at your workplace.”

He hopes the events empower other people to share their stories, and that they’ll think, “‘Well, I want to hear more of these stories, and I want to share my own.’ So that's the intent, and that's the hope.”

He added that the issue is big, and the Smelly Lunch Stories co-founders don’t have all the answers. But they are motivated by hope, not fear.

“It's easy to be crushed under the weight of this and going, 'Hey, just fix diversity'. But [it's] because we care enough to at least try, and also we're optimistic. I think this thing can only persist on the power of optimism.”

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