The Role of Diverse Thinking within Advertising with Charlotte Adorjan

“It’s been a long two decade journey, I think. Moving to Australia, I was looking for a work home that was aligned with what I liked from the 20 within the industry. Creativity, no assholes,” was how Charlotte Adorjan started to explain what led her to Taboo. 

Taboo’s executive creative director has spent her career learning from, loving and appreciating those who think differently, especially considering she herself has always thought differently. 

“It was quite hard to find that to be honest, I was freelancing for four years because it gave me the choice to be picky about who and what I wanted to work on,” she explained. 

Charlotte admitted that she was a bit ‘snobby’ with her choice in who she wanted to give her creativity to, but she expressed that Taboo as the perfect place for her. It was the culture of the agency that drew her away from the freelancing life, a culture she described as ‘extremely rare’ within the industry. 

“They are always hungry to create. They started on the streets with that guerilla, punk attitude and they haven’t lost that. I think some agencies started that way but have lost it over the years. Taboo feels like they could still cause a bit of trouble,” she said. 

When in the process of accepting her position at Taboo, a conversation was had around ‘dream briefs.’ Charlotte stated that she’d like to re-brand death, something that causes much discord among humans. This want to rebrand death was met with enthusiasm from the team, and a few ideas were thrown around on how to actually achieve this. 

“They match my shake things up, fuck things up attitude. They have office absinthe in the kitchen, one day I could be working on a spot for the government and then next I’m launching a denim brand with gimp masks,” she recalled. 

This attitude, and this need for diverse thinking, is what Charlotte has been searching for within the industry but has struggled to find. It is also very close to her heart, with two children who have been diagnosed with autism and having a career in the creative industry. Charlotte sees no reason why advertising and marketing shouldn’t reflect this, and accommodate for it. 

She described her children as the ‘ultimate taboo breakers’, questioning everything thrown their way. All the topics that adults are far too scared to approach, like death or religion for example, come naturally to them to question.  

“I went to a conference where the speaker compared an office to a bee hive, where you have worker bees and pioneer bees. The worker bees will do the same thing everyday, while the pioneer bees go out and look for a new place to build a hive. I remember she compared neurodivergent brains to the pioneer bees, someone with an autistic brain will hyper focus on one aspect of a job, while someone with ADHD will jump between any different aspect. Both bees are as important but if it’s all just worker bees, you’ll end up with the same boring hive. We need diverse thinking within the industry,” she said. 

This passion for diversifying the workplace bleeds into her passion for flexible working. Charlotte had been championing flexible working years before it became the norm during Covid-19. She believes that in order to get the best out of people, you need to accommodate their needs. Whether this is changing up the schedule of a busy mother or father, accommodating for school runs and detached weekends, or lowering the lights/music in the office for someone who is sensitive to those environments.  

“If you aren’t doing those things, then you’re missing out on a whole heap of talent,” she said and acknowledged that it is easier for a smaller boutique agency to do those sorts of things - but that shouldn’t stop larger agencies from trying. 

The industry has been talking about the need to change for a while now, as Charlotte recounted the many conferences and panels with ‘how to diversify’ as their main topic. She believes the industry still has some way to go, however, she has recognised instances where change is well underway. 

“On my first day at Taboo, we all went out for lunch and by coincidence it happened to be all the senior women of the agency. Our conversation quickly turned to childbirth, menopause and miscarriages. It was refreshing to have those conversations on my first day.” she said. 

Charlotte then recounted moments in her career where her female colleagues had gone out to start their own agencies or be freelance, because a support environment like the one at Taboo didn’t exist for them. 

Charlotte is confident that Taboo will continue to provide this environment for herself and all other people who come through their doors.