Brown Riot

Nigel Lopez-McBean talks about his career and his passion for political and social change amidst the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement and the lack of black talent in the creative industries. Nigel started out working at the BBC in London before moving to Sydney, Australia to run social marketing and creative services at Optus. He was responsible for the smash hit Ricky Gervais anti-ad campaign before moving to LA to co-found the Emmy-nominated creative studio, DPB Donut.

TV host, actor, DJ, producer and writer Faustina Agolley talks about growing up African-Chinese in Australia, the Black Lives Matter movement, racism and the media. She explains why she's serious pissed off about the Instagram black squares campaign and discusses how we can move forward as individuals and as a nation.

“Right now, especially in corporate media, actually any kind of Australian workplace, you’re getting measured more on what you bring to the table and the results, irrespective of your ethnicity.”

“You have to be aware that there’s differences. And the only way you can be aware that there’s differences is by sitting in a room and having an honest yarn.”

“Change is coming. It’s not just a thing that the press are talking about. It’s gonna happen. It just comes down to when.”

“People are communicating with words but they’re not really saying what they mean most of the time.”

“Transformation over a very long time is progress and transformation over a very small time is revolution.”

“A lot of women say they don’t want to be hired because they’re a woman – they want to be hired based on their skills and merit. And I feel the same about the colour that I am. I want to be good at my job first and foremost and be hired for that reason.”

Ash Naidu, ECD of BWM Sydney, is from an Indian background and grew up in South Africa. He’s created and led award-winning work on three continents, building inspiring, collaborative agency cultures along the way. Perhaps the pinnacle of his career so far has been the plethora of Lions he brought home from Cannes in 2018, including the coveted Grand Prix For Good, for Project Revoice, developed in partnership with Finch and Nakatomi.