A team of industry inclusion advocates, trade associations and action groups have joined together to launch a new campaign to tackle the widespread use of Non-Disclosure Agreements in the creative industries.

The ‘Make NDAs Fair’ campaign aims to achieve two key goals. Firstly, to educate around this misuse of NDAs so that more people within the industry are aware of it and in a position to challenge it. As the campaign team explains: “That includes better knowing your own rights, being able to support friends or colleagues in this situation, or for leaders to drive fundamental change in their organisations.”

The second aim is to publicly call on marketing organisations to include a Fair NDA clause visibly within their internal policies. As part of making a Fair NDA commitment, they should communicate this clause to all existing and future employees and sign post-basic training resources.

#timeTo change

The campaign is endorsed by partners including #timeTo, NABS, Outvertising, Bloom, the Conscious Advertising Network, Creative Equals and WACL, and a growing list of agencies, including QuietStorm, Seven Stars, The Elephant Room, Media Bounty and The Barber Shop. Fair NDAs will now be included as a recommended commitment in the Code of Conduct of the industry’s #timeTo initiative to eradicate sexual harassment.

The campaign comes nine months after Zoe Scaman published the ‘Mad Men, Furious Women,’ article which shone a light on the countless stories of sexual and other harassment that women, many minorities, and indeed sometimes men, regrettably experience working within the advertising industry.

The campaign team explains: “Most people’s experience of NDAs is perfectly reasonable and fair use to protect confidential business information and IP. Unfortunately, some in the media industry and other sectors have seen a darker side, in which they are used to silence victims of sexual abuse and prevent them from speaking about their experiences, even to their family.” The mental health costs of this silence are clear. 

Jerry Daykin, Diversity Ambassador at the World Federation of Advertisers, said, “NDAs aren’t the root of the problem, but they stop the problem being rooted out. I’ll be honest, I had relatively little awareness of this, but the Bloom Exchange program and listening to voices of those who have been affected spurred us on to act. As we painfully heard in Zoe’s article, brands are far from innocent in this and we certainly need to ensure our own houses are in order too. We do also have a role within the industry to push our partners to make this commitment and do the same.”

Creative Director Jo Wallace, who has led the development of the campaign to mark the launch, is calling on allies across the industry to share it across their professional social networks.

She explains: “We’ve all heard horror stories from victims whereby the silence and isolation that follows an unfair NDA causes ongoing, recurring trauma. We’ve created a simple campaign which gives those who have been silenced a collective voice to raise this concerning issue. I urge everyone across the industry to listen and then help create meaningful change. Please pick some of the executions from our launch and share them far and wide across your own networks.’

‘It’s time there was reform in this area,’ added  Ali Hanan, CEO, Creative Equals. ‘Going forwards, we have to make sure sexual predators in the industry are not protected. This has happened in the past where sexual abuse victims have been gagged, while predators have gone on to progress unhindered and abuse multiple times.’

In July 2019 the UK government committed to legislate on the use of NDA’s  "when Parliamentary time allows". But with no changes in law on the immediate horizon the campaign team has an ambition as an industry to move faster, eradicate sexual abuse of NDAs and confidentiality clauses and set an industry “best practice” standard.                                                                        

Legal expert Shilpen Savani, says that in employment contracts, confidentiality clauses are routinely used to protect confidential information and there’s nothing wrong with this if employees understand what is being asked of them. However, he continues: “When there is a dispute and employers offer outgoing employees a settlement agreement, this frequently introduces strict secrecy clauses with the threat that even a minor breach will jeopardise the employee’s whole compensation. This is unfair because the compensation paid is mainly for past matters and should not be tied to secrecy.”

He continues: “Of course the aim is to secure a clean break but these clauses can go too far. After all, there would be no such protection in a court or employment tribunal, where cases are heard in public. It becomes even worse if such clauses end up shielding workplace bullies and deter victims of sexual harassment or other misconduct from reporting this. This is not unique to advertising and is a problem that applies in other sectors too. We are asking decision makers and their advisers to recognise this issue, which can happen unintentionally, and improve their practices.”

A toolkit to Support Fair NDA’s 

Resources to support the campaign on social media.

Suggested Instagram post:

It’s time to raise awareness and take action against the systemic misuse of NDAs in relation to abuse and sexual harassment cases. We call for agencies, brands and leaders across the industry to adopt fair NDA policies and we provide actionable guidance to do so. MAKE NDAs FAIR is supported by @nabs_uk @timetochangecampaign @creativeequals @gunnercookellp @goodgirlseatdinner @wacl2 @bloomuk_org @beamsuntory 

Suggested Twitter post: 

It’s time to act against systemic misuse of NDAs in abuse and sexual harassment cases. MAKE NDAs FAIR. Supported by @nabs_uk @timetochange @creativeequals #gunnercookellp @GGEatDinner @wacl1 @bloomuk                

A selection of social images from the campaign:                        

If you have been affected by this subject please explore the resources offered by timeTo and NABS, including confidential one to one support through the NABS Advice Line: 0800 707 6607/[email protected].