Trevor Robison OBE, director of London-based advertising company Quiet Storm, has launched an initiative called ‘Create not Hate’ to increase diversity and inclusion within the adverting and creative industry.  

Developed in collaboration with Quiet Storm CEO Rania Robinson, the project aims to get the untapped people of colour into businesses to boost diversity and drive positive change. 

This is the second iteration of Create not Hate. The first mentorship and training program launched in 2007, aimed at helping inner-city youths from ethnic minority backgrounds and kids affected by gang-related violence to get into the creative industry, proposing creative solutions to problems such as gun and knife crime. Selected ideas were made into a film titled ‘A Mother’s Tears’, which was written by two 14-year-old boys who had experienced the murder of one of their friends.

The initiative stemmed from Robinson’s frustration at the lack of opportunities open to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds like his own.

He said: “I first launched Create Not Hate in 2007 to open the eyes of black inner-city school kids to their creative potential. 13 years later, profound inequalities in society, and the issue of the lack of diverse talent in our industry, remain unresolved. The time is right to re-launch this initiative to promote positive change, and I invite people across the industry to get behind it.”

Create not Hate 2020, which comes in the wake of worldwide Black Lives Matter protests, aims to create a gateway for under-represented young people into a career in the creative and ad industries. It will provide ongoing support and training in all aspects of the creative advertising process and hopes to inspire young talents to get involved and submit their project ideas. 

Create Not Hate will start by promoting BLM during the Notting Hill Carnival, which is going virtual this year. This idea came from a team of young students in the School of Communication Arts in London, who collaborate in the project. Carnival is not only a keystone of the British Afro-Caribbean culture, but it also harks back to the abolition of slavery, and it is steeped in the tradition of protest, anti-racism and fellowship.

After that, Create Not Hate will outreach to schools and communities, and there will be another brief in which young people will be able to submit their projects. The selected ideas will be used in a new Create not Hate campaign in December. 

Create not Hate is looking for mentors to take part in the program. They could be people with particular expertise that might be able to teach new skills, business owners who can offer an internship or apprenticeship or anyone who would like to volunteer at any point of the process.

It is possible to support Create not Hate by donating at lgf.me/u/yfi9ax. 

Trevor Robinson is renowned for his contribution to society and for encouraging future talent from disadvantaged backgrounds. He stated that his motivation comes from the frustration he felt in his youth. At the age of 11, he was told by his career advisor he could only become a bus driver. He has chaired the IPA’s Ethnic Diversity Forum and was awarded OBE in 2009 for his services to charity and advertising. 

Rania Robinson came to the UK from Egypt at the age of three. She is a passionate exponent of diversity in workplaces, and she has been responsible for redressing the balance of female representation within the advertising industry, where female presence is now equal to male. Rania features in Campaign’s A List of the most influential people in the creative sector, and she is on the executive committee for WACL, a project which aims to accelerate gender equality in the advertising and communication sector. She is also a regular industry commentator for the BBC.