Accenture Song and its creative agency Droga5 have pulled out of a creative pitch process after the sunsetting of its diversity, equity and inclusion policy failed to meet the Transport for London (TfL) requirements.
The global consultancy is one of a number of US headquartered businesses that publicly dropped their diversity, equity and inclusion policies after US President Donald Trump’s re-election.
A TfL spokesperson told the UK advertising title Campaign it was “proud to hold suppliers to account” by aligning their values with the TfL’s diversity and inclusivity requirements.
The spokesperson added: “Unfortunately, due to changes in Accenture Song/Droga5’s priorities in recent months, we were unable to continue with their bid for our creative tender contract as they no longer met the criteria for diversity that we expect from all suppliers.”
TfL owns one of the world’s largest and most valuable networks of media assets across the London transport system.
Since taking office, Trump has instructed US government agencies to wind down their DE&I programmes and federal employees working in diversity offices were immediately put on paid leave.
He has signed two executive orders targeting DEI programmes and activities within the federal government.
The Financial Times reported that more than 200 US companies have removed references to “diversity, equity and inclusion” from their annual reports since Trump’s election.
B&T understands that organisations in Australia, particularly government agencies and NGOs, are either overlooking consultancies dropping the DE&I policies or not inviting them to pitch for supplier contracts in the first place.
