Rocky Ranallo: From Cricket Pitches to Creative Pitches – Bringing Ad Careers to Western Sydney; Enrol now for the early October Semester
Advertising has a problem – it’s seen as a ‘posh’ career, far removed from the realities of many communities in Western Sydney. Just as Freddie Flintoff challenged the elitist barriers in cricket through his ‘Field of Dreams’ TV series, the industry faces a similar challenge in opening up the advertising world to a broader, more diverse talent pool. Right now, for most students in the west, a career in advertising isn’t even on their radar. Rocky Ranallo of the Western Sydney Ad School, believes it’s time to change that narrative.
I watched Freddies Flintoff’s series Field of Dreams the other day, and the similarities with the Western Sydney Ad School were very similar.
If you don’t know, Freddie realised that around 90% of the English cricket team is made up of privately educated players.
It’s not surprising when you watch a test match at Lords.
Freddie, who’s not from the upper classes but from Preston, Lancashire, northern England, wanted to put together a cricket team of kids from disadvantaged backgrounds (keep in mind they hate the word disadvantaged, by the way; they don’t want your handouts).
His first hurdle was getting them interested.
None of them wanted to play such a “posh” sport.
They were more into football than any other pastime.
Most had never been to or watched a match.
Advertising has the same problem engaging kids from a more diverse background.
Students from the West of Sydney have no desire or, in fact, any idea of what a career in advertising would entail.
It is not even on their radar.
It’s a career for those wankers from the East.
They want to be lawyers, doctors, finance professionals, or, best of all, tradies. (That’s where the real money is.)
If we are serious about attracting a more diverse creative workforce, then we have to do what Freddie did and go to the source… not Preston, as Freddie ended up doing, but Blacktown, Parramatta, Harris Park, Lidcombe, Penrith, and other places I’m sure you’ve never heard of.
We cannot sit in Sydney and hope they will come to you.
What can we do, I hear you ask?
Here are a few thoughts, but you can develop better ones.
The advertising council should spend the 5k or so for a stand and promote the business at school career shows every year.
They should start AWARD School West in Parramatta, making it easier and more affordable for anyone interested.
Or would a pop-up agency on the high street work to attract some PR in the local papers?
Money and time needs to be invested somehow.
Based on the responses I get from agencies around town, there are people and companies wanting to help.
We need to approach it differently.
There is a growing and vibrant creative community out there that needs to know about the many great things a creative career in advertising can bring.
Freddie’s Preston team turned out to be quite handy, with one player even being selected for Lancashire’s under-18 team.
Adnan, a refugee foster child from Afghanistan, just needed someone to believe in him and give him the opportunity to do something he loved.
What we are doing for those kids out west just isn’t cricket.
In the meantime, there’s always westernsydneyadschool.com.au
Enrol now for the early October Semester.
Rocky Ranallo is a highly awarded Art Director and Creative Director who has been at the top of his game for over 50 years.
Rocky’s career began at Connaghan and May in 1976. But it was during his 20 years at The Campaign Palace where he made an indelible mark on the industry with campaigns for Meat and Livestock, Simpson, Thredbo and many others.
Never simply a flavour-of-the-month creative, Rocky’s work over the years has been consistently accepted and awarded at Cannes, One Show, D+AD, AWARD, Folio, Caxton ATV and twice winning Art Director of the year by Campaign Brief.
Since 2004, Rocky has co-led the creative departments of Clemenger BBDO and Belgiovane Williams Mackay as Deputy Creative Director and Creative Director. He left to establish his own consultancy in July 2013.
He is now a Creative Partner at WECOULDDOTHAT, a creative consultancy he has established with creative partner Matt Smith of The Hairy Banana.
In 2019 he established the Western Sydney Ad School, the first and only advertising school in the Western Suburbs of Sydney for disadvantaged students.
6 Comments
I think kids from under-represented backgrounds are going straight to the feeds. Because that’s what smart kids do.
You’ll find their raw, thumb-stopping talent cracking you up on TikTok and Insta, or making you sweat on Reddit or X.
Only you might miss it because your algo doesn’t feel like it’s FYP.
I don’t think we can Field of Dreams this one. I think the mountain needs to go to @Mohamed. Get some scouts out there. Well, on their phones.
Find great young creators, with storytelling chops. See if they even care about advertising, and writing or art direction. And if they do, place them. Plonk them in a cool job with lots of support. Representation starts with hiring for potential, not just merit.
The concept of merit is so often used to cloak privilege. Proven potential? That’s way more exciting.
The similarities are very similar.
I’m with Simon G.
Having just shelled out $2K to a plumber for two hours work, the question I have after reading Rocky’s piece is why a smart cookie from the West (or anywhere else) would want to work in advertising?
I recently saw a listing on a FB group seeking an experienced writer for the princely sum of $380 a day. More than 20 people publicly put their hands up for the gig.
Young (and even not so young) creatives aren’t just getting less than tradies. They are getting less than hospitality workers.
I wonder if the lack of talent and diversity us old fogeys decry between doses of Geritol isn’t because the brightest minds can’t get in, but rather because the brightest minds have better things to do?
Long gone are the days when a Carey or a Rushdie or an Orwell or a Hemingway would be sharing your struggles to find the perfect bon mot.
Bezos, Zuckerberg and Musk didn’t use advertising as a stepping stone to world domination.
Adverting industry bodies have spent decades profiting from those desperate (and rich) enough to pay to get into the business. Without considering that they could be perpetuating a version of the famous Groucho Marx quote.
Maybe someone prepared to pay $2K to get into advertising is someone we don’t want?
Big tech firms and finance behemoths throw serious money at finding and securing the best of the best at an early age.
Is it a coincidence that such entities now control the most innovative and profitable parts of our industry?
Working class kids don’t want to work in advertising, they’re smarter than this. Real smart, street smart. You’re not giving them a break by offering the opportunity, we make our own. Advertising, it’s middle class thing, where kids care about an ‘impressive’ title even above salary. We aspire to lead richer lives. We will not be a slave to the system. It’s done. Move on, let go, ain’t nobody listening to techno.
My kid is off the charts smart. He likes ads and likes some of the ads I’ve made. I’ve told him that advertising is a waste of his talent and a dead end industry that eats its young and considers you washed up by 40. Never in a million years will I encourage him to become an advertising creative.
It’s barely a ‘profession’ these days compared with 10, 20, 30 years ago. And AI is just beginning and it’s going to smash creatives moving forward. How old is too old to become a tradie?