Wednesday, March 06, 2019

14558: Delayed WTF 45—Black History Month In Adland Is Off Strategy.

MultiCultClassics is often occupied with real work. As a result, a handful of events occur without the expected blog commentary. This limited series—Delayed WTF—seeks to make belated amends for the absence of malice.

As mentioned with the Steve Stoute perspective published by Adweek, it seemed like the advertising industry was delegating diversity celebrations during Black History Month. That is, lots of Black executives filled lots of content and column space discussing the dismal dearth of diversity in adland.

Why?

Sure, diversity is an important discussion topic. And it certainly gains relevance in the month of February. But isn’t the purpose of Black History Month to honor accomplishments, contributions and heroic figures? And wasn’t the BHM 2019 theme on Black Migrations?

International Women’s Day is happening on Friday, March 8. Does anyone expect to see a focus on the prevalence of sexual harassment, gender pay gaps and mansplaining in advertising agencies?

No, it’s more likely the industry will excrete a barrage of big-budget big ideas to globally salute sisterhood for 24 hours—a stark contrast to the royalty-free stock images used to crummily commemorate Blacks for 28 days.

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