Backlash over arts advert

There’s been a bit of a hullabaloo about a recent government campaign that centred on retraining for another career. 

Though it featured a few different job roles, the image that riled a lot of people was the one featuring Fatima, the ballet dancer, and the advert’s suggestion that she retrains to work in cybersecurity.

The overall aim of the campaign was to promote the various upskilling and career-changing initiatives the government has developed after seeing unemployment statistics balloon due to the impact of coronavirus. I’m presuming the thought process was that retraining to do a role that was actively growing/employing people would be better than years spent on the dole as the industry you used to work in eventually picks itself back up and dusts itself off. I (sort of) get it on that level.

As I said, this same ‘retraining’ message was given across the campaign and the different adverts featuring a range of roles. However, the ballet dancer advert was singled out—it was even called ‘crass’ by Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden. Most people felt it perfectly demonstrated how the government sees the arts. This sector has seen a complete lockdown, with little financial support. Suggesting to someone who has seen their future dreams shatter into smithereens, that they should retrain to be a cybersecurity officer, shows no appreciation of the struggles they’re facing. It suggests that their choice of career is now of little value in a world learning to live alongside Covid-19.

A bricklayer changing career may be walking away from a couple of years spent gathering skills and perhaps a few more gaining experience. In comparison, a professional ballet dancer will have been training for their job since they could walk. To get to a level of proficiency where ballet earns them a wage (as opposed to a hobby), they will have trained for hours every single week. They will have likely missed the things other children and teenagers will have experienced, in order to train some more. They will have trained into the ground to be accepted into the top ballet schools. Their whole life will likely revolve around ballet. It’s not simply a job to someone like Fatima, it’s their calling. It’s what they are. How can they switch that off to sit behind a desk all day?

Of course, that’s not to say they won’t turn their hand to other roles in order to earn an income until the arts and entertainment sectors return—after all, bills still need to be paid. But suggesting that they should reassess their dreams and never again be a part of the world that makes them happy, that’s completely different. There’s no wonder the advert received the backlash it did. How would MPs feel if we suggested they change careers and train to be police officers, bus drivers or sewage workers instead (I feel they’d be rather good at the latter)?