Jeff Benjamin’s Post

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“There aren’t that many Asians here.” My wife, who is not in the creative/marketing industry, made this observation at The Clio Awards ceremony last night. When I was a younger and more junior designer, I was surrounded by people of color. That changed by the time I was in the upper management. All of a sudden, I became the only or one of the few Asians or people of color in the boardroom. When PJ Pereira and I joined AKQA back in 2005, PJ—a Latino and the Yang to my Ying—came up with the idea called “Future Lions” for Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. It was a competition that asked students around the world to come up with an idea that wasn’t possible 5 years ago for a brand of their choosing. I ended up running the competition for almost 10 years. The first year in 2006, we had 23 entries, if I recall correctly. Gian Carlo Lanfranco and Rolo Cordova, creative students from Peru, were among the first five winning teams. SungKwon( 매튜 ) Ha from Korea and his teammates won in 2009. Back in 2004, I got a call from Jeff Benjamin of Crispin Porter Bogusky. I started to win an award or two with my work on Nike. Jeff was already winning a ton with his Burger King and MINI work. I only knew of his name and assumed he was, you know, not brown. According to Jeff himself, his voice was two octaves higher back then. We were all kids of color in our 20s or barely 30, trying to break into or make it in the industry. Ok, PJ and Jeff had made it by their late 20s. Almost two decades later, PJ, Gian, Rolo, Sung, Jeff, and I are now leaders, founders, and educators of color. And also, creatives of color. The fewer we are, the higher we go. Imagine creativity without color. Wouldn’t that be bland? #leadership #career #management #mentorship #minority #diversity