Consulting experts question why issues of sexism left out of Experience Regina independent review

One week after REAL released the findings of an independent review into its controversial Experience Regina campaign, some policy and consulting experts are still left with questions.

An independent review was conducted to investigate the inappropriate slogans and taglines of the March campaign, as well as to determine what happened, why it happened and how it can be prevented in the future.

The slogans included ‘Show Us Your Regina’ and ‘The City that Rhymes with Fun.’

Business professor and consultant Sean Tucker has been closely following the Experience Regina controversy since the rebrand launched. He said the report does not “properly address the central issues” of how the slogans came to be and how harmful they were to the public.

“The report fails to explain why the slogans were offensive,” he said.

“We’re talking about a systemic issue, misogyny in society, and in 2023 you just wouldn’t expect a campaign like this.”

Tucker questioned why the report outlines three pages worth of REAL’s history and accomplishments but does not discuss the campaign’s impact and reaction from community groups. He noted the document does not use the words misogyny, sexist or sexism.

He believes there could be a deeper issue with REAL’s workplace culture that needs to be explored in order to explain why no one spoke out against the sexualized slogans early on in the campaign process.

“Did people not feel safe speaking up about it or was everyone on board and they thought this was a great idea?” Tucker said.

REAL selected George Cuff to conduct the independent review. He received terms of reference from REAL that instructed him to focus on governance and processes, he said.

He admitted there are other issues within the campaign launch that were not included in the report.

“There was an ongoing question that was overhanging the whole process, which was how on Earth did these slogans get on the table and why were they not deep-sixed when they were first seen?” Cuff told CTV News.

“Of course, I wasn’t asked to answer that question.”

CTV News reached out to REAL for comment, but did not hear back.

Cuff’s findings show a lack of managerial oversight was to blame for a junior employee allowing the slogans on the website.

However, Jacq Brasseur, a consultant for non-profit organizations, said two areas need to be reviewed in order for REAL to fully understand what went wrong.

“This isn’t only a governance problem, this is a problem of the sexualization of women and other gender minority bodies,” they said.

Brasseur said equity, diversity, and inclusion are at the forefront of conversations in the non-profit sector and questioned why those issues were not explored in the report.

“Those findings don’t say it had nothing to do with misogyny. It wasn’t discussed at length, if at all,” Brasseur said.

“There is an opportunity for REAL to do more of that work internally.”

• Download the CTV News app to get local alerts sent to your device

Brasseur said the Experience Regina campaign should continue to be a point of discussion in the tourism and non-profit sector to help other organizations learn from REAL’s mistakes.

Despite what the report found, Brasseur said this mistake was foreseeable.

They suggest REAL should implement a gender-based analysis framework for decision-making that could help prevent this in the future.

“The more perspectives and the more experiences that are around a decision-making table, the less likely it is that something like this will happen again,” they said.

Cuff made a number of recommendations for REAL to move forward with, including a review of the organizational structure and its internal decision-making authority.