Dear advertising,
We are the industry that regularly hacks pop culture to sell products, change behaviors and influence lifestyles.
We are the industry that single handedly eliminated littering, made America buckle up, ended public cigarette smoking, registered millions of voters and drastically reduced the rate of drunk driving.
No other industry in America is better suited to develop a cure for the racism that currently has our country in crisis ... except for one small problem. Racism still plagues our industry.
In too many of our boardrooms, everyone looks the same. In too many of our TV commercials, everyone looks the same. Too often, open jobs are not made public, and are instead filled by friends of people, that look the same as those people. Too often, the best meaning people, are making closed minded decisions without the slightest hint they are doing something wrong. There is a spectrum of racism. Blatant hate is only one extreme side of that spectrum. But many times, racism is a glaring blind spot in perspective. And standing in that blind spot are millions of talented people of color.
George Floyd is the latest example of our long racist history as a country. He was killed after a policeman kneeled on his neck, with his full body weight, for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. That officer ignored his pleas of “I can’t breathe”, ignored his cries for help, ignored his gasps for air and eventually, ignored his limp, lifeless body beneath him. The spirit of racism that killed George Floyd, whether it was white supremacy, black hate, or a failure to acknowledge his humanity, is a cultural sickness that must be cured.
In the name of #GeorgeFloyd, I’m asking each advertising professional to take the challenge to help end racism in America, by helping to end it in our industry. This includes outing the bad apples, recruiting from new talent pools, diversifying staff and training that staff to be the culturally sensitive global citizens you already claim to be. If we end racism in our industry, we can definitely end it in America. #TakeTheChallenge