TRA, consultancy firm that advises multiple Government agencies, under fire for 'appalling' since-deleted social media post

A consultancy firm that advised multiple Government agencies on public sentiment is under fire for a post on social media one business leader branded as "unacceptable".

The post by The Research Agency (TRA), which has since been deleted, was about wealth and "haves and have-nots". A photo attached to the post shows a woman using cash as a paper fan with the caption, "The have-nots are beginning to distance themselves - at least aesthetically - from the haves".

Screenshots of the ad were subsequently shared on LinkedIn, where business and non-profit leaders were highly critical.

"This just makes me so sad, to be honest. To see a market research company discussing inequity (haves and have-nots) - of which so many have no choice in… How could this have been approved and publicly shared?" wrote Julia Arnott-Neenee, the chief executive of Fibre Fale, which aims to create pathways for Pasifika into tech.

"Did no one in an organisation paid to be experts in society and human behaviour not see anything wrong with this picture?"

Sharing Arnott-Neenee's views, FENWICK recruitment and talent agency co-founder Izzy Fenwick said the ad showed how much empathy was stick lacking when it came to inequity.

"It is completely unacceptable in 2023 to lack empathy in these spaces let alone try to leverage that as a marketing ploy," Fenwick wrote.

"I feel you, Julia, this is incredibly sad and deserves to be acknowledged as such."

TRA partner Colleen Ryan, replying to Fenwick's LinkedIn post, confirmed the company deleted the post in response to Arnott-Neenee's comments - saying it was "clearly a misstep on our part".

"The article was intended to describe and analyse the global fashion trends, especially the increase in criticisms of luxury and privilege across mainstream media," Ryan wrote.

"Julia drew our attention to how this piece could be seen when looked at through a different lens.

"As a result of Julia's feedback, we removed the article. As a business, we do try to ensure we have all the voices in the room, but we acknowledge that this time we failed to take into account enough different perspectives."

TRA has been contacted for further comment.

According to its website, TRA is "an insight agency intent on solving the complex problems organisations face today", and says it puts "people at the heart of the organisations we work with through extensive use of research, analytics, strategy and culture". 

TRA, which has the catchphrase "we know people" emblazoned on its website, has previously been commissioned by multiple Government and council agencies including the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi, the Retirement Commission and Auckland Transport. It was hired by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to do "sentiment research and concept testing" for the Government’s COVID-19 campaigns.

Governments around the world have become more reliant on research agencies and consultancies at a cost to tax-payers. In the UK, consultants working on England's COVID-19 contact tracing scheme in 2020 and 2021 cost the British government more than NZ$1900 per day on average.

Back home, the New Zealand Government was paying contractors $6000 a week on average to consult on the now-scrapped TVNZ-RNZ merger. As of July, it was spending almost $1 billion per year on contractors and consultants.

Newshub.