Despite women accounting for 85% purchases (Australian Centre for Business Growth, 2025), under 15% of commercial work in Australia last year was directed by women. It’s not a pipeline problem, women make up 22% of directors on production company rosters. They’re just not getting awarded at the same rate.

So Howatson+Company developed Fair Treatment, an experiment to test whether blind hiring processes can eliminate gender bias in commercial directing. The initiative was developed in collaboration with executive creative directors, executive producers, and production companies across the Australian advertising industry. By removing identifying information from the selection process, it isolates creative merit as the sole criterion for hiring decisions. All results will be tracked and made publicly available.

The experiment borrows a process from industries such as consultancies and symphony orchestras. From 28 August 2026, advertising agencies and brands are invited to select directors through a “blind” selection process. Removing names, companies and identifying information from creative pitches means ideas are evaluated based purely on the ideas in the treatment, eliminating subconscious bias around gender or race to get a more pure reaction to the work.

“When running AWARD School, we saw that blind judging of creatives’ work greatly shifted the gender and cultural breakdown of who was deemed talented enough,” stated Karen Ferry, executive creative director and ABC TV’s Gruen panellist. “When we give unexpected talent a chance, it creates the opportunity to tell interesting stories through new perspectives and make work that connects to disenfranchised audiences – a challenge that every marketer and advertiser should be thinking about.”

When a brand needs a director, several directors are shortlisted to pitch their vision. If agencies choose to put a director on the bid, they should be comfortable for any director to win – but that’s not always the case.

“I have been told a few times from different agency producers that they have felt sorry for me knowing that I am just there as a token female who was never going to win the job,” said one female director, whose name has been anonymised.

Under The Fair Treatment, agencies select their director shortlist as usual, then pitches are submitted anonymously. The best idea wins. Names are revealed only after selection and results will be analysed to measure impact.

The initiative is launching with award-winning directors, Steve Rogers, Ariel Martin, Matt Devine, Stefan Hunt, and Dave Wood from internationally recognised production companies including Revolver, Good Oil, Scoundrel, Photoplay, Cousin, Rabbit, Exit, and Sweetshop.

Pip Smart, partner and executive producer at Revolver and jury president for the Film Craft Lions at the Cannes Lions, commented, “Anything that helps us as an industry take a look at ourselves is a great thing.  There’s no doubt we have diversity issues, and this idea draws light on some of that in a startling way.”

Analysis of 2,4677 director credits from Campaign Brief and BestAds revealed the 15% figure and declining trend. Of the 30 most-published directors in Australia, only 3 are women.

Ariel Martin, director and co-founder of Cousin ranked #1 Australian director on BestAds, commented, “It’s a really important initiative. I got involved in Fair Treatment because it’s not just talking about a problem – it’s a potential solution.”

Organisations from the London Symphony Orchestra to Ernst & Young have proven blind selection increases diversity and improves outcomes. Fair Treatment aims to demonstrate the same in advertising and provide a model for other creative industries. Results, including hiring data, will be made public in early 2027. The initiative launched with a film featuring established Australian directors speaking about gender bias. In less than 24 hours, the launch film has received 35.6k views.