Publicis has broadened the scope of its DEI platform “This is the Job,” adding a French language version to the initiative to expand its reach across the country, while also inking partnerships with several Canadian school boards and piloting a job fair event for students.

Launched in English in late 2021, “This is the Job” is a platform through which Publicis aims to give young people who may not have considered advertising for a career the tools they need to see how their skills and interests could translate into a specific role at a Canadian agency. The platform was developed as an extension of Publicis Toronto’s “Driving Change” committee, by Publicis Toronto account director Jessica Carnegie, Publicis Hawkeye VP and ECD Scott Pinkney and Stephane McRae, head of DEI for Publicis Groupe Canada.

“I wanted to put together a virtual networking event to help get students into the world of advertising,” Carnegie tells strategy. “As a black woman myself, I found it hard to navigate my way through the ad industry to get in. Unfortunately, this is one of the industries where it’s more about who you know than what you know, and if you’re a young black woman like myself, you probably don’t know someone who works in the space. So this was devised as a networking event to get students jazzed about advertising.”

“What excited me most about this initiative when I first heard about it was that it was a way that we could make real change,” adds Pinkney. “We have a goal of changing the complexion of what Canada’s agencies look like, to make them look more like the country that we serve. When we landed on that, we realized we needed to be in this for the long haul. This is a massive undertaking. More than 200 people have been involved in creating this platform.”

The initiative is anchored by its website, which offers students aged 13 to 18 an online questionnaire they can complete to learn how they could be the right fit for an agency role. Recently, it has expanded to add more than a dozen new potential jobs, focusing on media, digital production and strategy. There are plans to add additional positions until full representation is achieved throughout the industry.

Alongside the web portal, the initiative incorporates “a lot of outreach,” says Pinkney.

“We’ve made connections with a bunch of school boards and will be going monthly into the schools. We’ve had our first physical job fair. This is what we’re excited about: the platform and the foundation are there, and the outreach piece has been incredible,” he adds. Among the school boards that have partnered with Publicis on “This is the Job” are the Toronto District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board and the Halton Catholic District School Board.

On April 28, the platform held its first job fair, featuring presentations from agency employees who spoke to their experiences in ten different roles and an interactive workshop where students were able to collaborate on projects related to advertising, giving them some hands-on experience with the job and an idea of how it all works.

“Some kids, especially from those racialized groups, might have never heard of the advertising world,” says McRae, who is also vice president of HR for Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi. “‘This is the Job’ is our way of reaching out and showing them what’s possible.”