The Taboo Group is a family-owned, fully independent, Melbourne-based creative company – who describe themselves as ‘an advertising agency for a world that hates advertising’. They specialise in communications, brand creation, strategy, brand experiences and packaging design.
Why did you want to become a Certified B Corporation?
For over 20 years, TABOO has been driven by a vision to defy norms.
In the last five years, however, we’ve become much more conscious of not only how we’re helping other brands and businesses, but the responsibility we have as an independent agency to lead the way in making the right decisions ourselves, particularly within an industry that’s been very irresponsible for a very long time.
Today, our vision is to “defy norms and leverage creativity to help brands make environmental, social and commercial impact” – and over the past five years, we have completely overhauled the companies we work with, our recruitment processes, our organisational structures, our philosophies and our policies, in order to really embed this purpose at our very core.
Via our B Corp certification, we have been forced to unpack and expose our deepest biases – and this has been an enlightening and powerful learning experience for everyone in the organisation. From this new place of understanding, we are much better equipped to not only change the way we operate ourselves, but to reframe the way we advise and work with our clients and partners.
Ultimately, by proving that an advertising agency can work in a way that we haven’t historically been able (or willing) to – we can start to apply pressure to our whole industry to operate in a healthier, happier, more responsible way.
What makes TABOO unique as a business? Tell us some of the areas where you have the biggest impact, or some of the little changes you’ve made to make a difference.
We are a people-first company and take our decisions not on what will make us the most profit, but instead, what will create the most meaningful and impactful place for our employees and partners. We have no ambition to be the biggest place to work, but we do want to be the best place to work.
This prioritisation permeates through all our major decisions – from saying ‘no’ to clients and projects if they don’t serve our people, our creative ambitions or the community at large – to implementing a range of initiatives to keep women in our industry long enough to hold senior positions.
We don’t subscribe to many of our industry’s standards – from staff ratios, to parental leave, to flexible working arrangements, to supporting side hustles.
We believe the cycle of looking after our people – and carefully selecting the partners we collaborate with – means all our relationships and processes are healthy ones. And that drives us all to create the most meaningful work in the most meaningful way.
Do you have any tips for aspiring B Corps about the certification process?
Be prepared to break everything and start again.
A big congratulations to The Taboo Group for achieving B Corp certification!
