Alice in Wonderland is one of my favorite books. It inspired me as a child to break out of norms and run out for adventures and acknowledged my daydreaming as an art form.

The character Cheshire Cat said, “We’re all mad here” which to me means that we are all uniquely crazy here, making sense of the disorderly world in our own way. In the book, as Alice went down the rabbit hole and discovered a whole new hidden world, you meet many characters like the Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, etc. One has to drink different poisons to change shape, drink at tea parties where time stops, peek through the looking glass and explore the wonderland. To me, the strange world of Wonderland is not that different from the world of advertising for filmmakers.

Alice’s journey down the rabbit hole mirrors our world of advertising in many ways. It’s a realm full of eccentric characters—like the White Rabbit, Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, Hookah Smoking Caterpillar, the Queen and King of Hearts—each offering a different perspective. Alice has to navigate through strange tea parties, change shape by drinking potions, peer through the looking glass, and thrive in the madness around. In many ways, Wonderland is a maze through which Alice finds her courage and voice. Her path is anything but straightforward; it’s full of arbitrary rules, constant twists, and moments of self-doubt. In Wonderland, as in advertising, chaos and confusion are often the greatest teachers. But through the confusion, as Alice too discovers, the only way forward is to embrace the madness and carve out her own path.

For anyone pursuing a creative career, or really any dream, the journey is similar. There’s no guidebook. No clear map. The only thing that matters is finding your own voice in the chaos. You can’t navigate Wonderland by following someone else’s rules; you have to figure out how you will respond to the madness, how you will make your mark in a world that’s often unpredictable. But here, if one wonders more, if an ‘Alice of today’ wants to navigate through the maze of advertising to come on top, she probably would find a lot of the doors locked or not visible.

Alice (a metaphor for all women in advertising, as you may have now decoded) dares to dream but often lacks guidance and opportunities to deviate from the obvious roles. I often find myself wondering why, at roundtable talks, there are only one or two women among 10. It cannot be a lack of availability or representation. I know, for a fact, that there are over 50 women directors in the industry. Then, it surely cannot be a lack of talent. I find myself asking further why more women aren’t recognised in the credits of ‘best ads’ lists or why only one or two women make it to the list of the ‘greats.’ Why do the titles of the top ‘chiefs’ still rarely include the names of women? It can’t be that there aren’t more who are capable.

I don’t believe we, as an industry, think that women are incapable of creating sports films, thinking outside the box to create design-heavy campaigns, directing car or gaming commercials, writing music videos with intense visual graphs, crafting action narratives that explore stunts or creating an intense abstract film.

So, I ask you to wonder with me: why does representation at the table still feel like a token gesture? And do you think you can unlock just one door for equal cerebral opportunities for ‘Alice’ and allow more women to join the table? The door to true equality, a world where talent is recognised without bias, should not be locked. It should be wide open. To clarify, it’s not about offering preference, but about creating an environment where more women can bring their talent and creativity to the forefront, beyond the traditional realms of beauty, luxury, and motherhood ads.

In Alice in Wonderland, Alice sought to change the rules and orders of the world she stumbled upon—a change that is already in motion, though it needs to speed up. I believe we will soon see more women embracing their courage to stand firm in their convictions, stepping up to participate, and see the world cherish their talents without questioning their capability or capacity.

The author is a freelance director.