Per the hype: The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society.
Um, has full citizenship really been achieved?
Advertising Age published a lengthy report on how Latino representation in Super Bowl LX advertising waned at a critical time for the segment.
In short, Latinos got iced while ICE reigned.
Hispanic representation wanes in Super Bowl ads at critical time
By Lindsay Rittenhouse
Diversity is waning in Super Bowl LX advertising, and noticeably scarce this year is Hispanic representation.
Several diversity and inclusion experts interviewed for this story said the lack of Hispanic casting and storylines is particularly disappointing given the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s targeting of this community, leaving them already feeling isolated and vulnerable.
“Latinos in the U.S. are navigating significant injustices in the current political environment, and non-Hispanic allies are increasingly showing up to support and protest alongside the community,” said Myles Worthington, CEO and founder of agency Worthi. “As marketers, knowing there is a massive influx of this audience watching the Super Bowl, it’d simply be poor strategy not to find a specific way to connect.”
Rocket Mortgage’s “America Needs Neighbors Like You” is one of the only national Super Bowl ads this year to prominently feature a Latino cast and promote a more earnest message of unity in a sea of in-game creative that leans heavily into humor. In the ad, friendly gestures by members of a Latino family new to the block help ease perceived tension with their new neighbors.
Meanwhile, of the 107 celebrities starring in Big Game spots this year, only eight are Hispanic, including Sofía Vergara, starring in Boehringer Ingelheim’s in-game spot; magician David Blaine, who appears in YouTube TV’s spot; and Danny Trejo, who is in Novo Nordisk’s ad. That finding is part of Ad Age’s annual report that evaluates how national advertisers in the game prioritized diversity and inclusion on the screen and behind the cameras.
Worthington said seeing so many brands fail to prioritize Hispanic viewers—especially on the biggest night in advertising when so many will tune in to watch the halftime performance of Puerto Rican star Bad Bunny—“is a signal of cultural illiteracy, not prudence.”
Missed opportunity to reach Hispanic viewers
Lisette Arsuaga, the co-president and co-CEO of DMI Consulting, a strategic marketing firm specializing in diverse segments, and the co-founder of the Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM), speculated that perhaps brands felt that because Bad Bunny is performing the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show, “the Super Bowl had already taken care of Hispanics.”
But that thinking is flawed. “If a white talent were doing the Super Bowl, brands wouldn’t be thinking, ‘Oh, I don’t have to represent whites in my ad because that’s already part of the Super Bowl,’” she said.
It’s not clear why exactly the majority of Super Bowl advertisers left this demographic out of their spots. If anything, the highly anticipated Bad Bunny performance should be proof of the power of Hispanic culture and talent, Worthington said, pointing to the fact that a teaser posted to Instagram for his halftime show already reeled in the most likes of any teaser for a halftime performer ever.
Many of our interviewees praised the NFL for choosing Bad Bunny and championing diversity while so many brands sat silently on the sidelines. As a result, “the most powerful statement” isn’t going to be made during the commercial breaks but when Bad Bunny takes the stage, said Nicole Simpson, VP of inclusion and impact at Omnicom-owned Rapp.
“At a moment when the Latine community is particularly vulnerable, spotlighting the world’s top global artist who is fresh off historic Grammy wins and responsible for over $400 million in economic impact for Puerto Rico, isn’t just smart business,” Simpson said, “it’s a declaration of whose stories deserve center stage and a clear signal that the league sees its future as undeniably global.”
Arsuaga also took issue with what she said was a misrepresentation of Hispanic culture in Instacart’s “Bananas” commercial in which the mustachioed duo of Ben Stiller and Benson Boone sing about the grocery delivery platform’s feature that lets customers choose how ripe they want their produce. The ad has drummed up some backlash as some people have interpreted Stiller and Boone’s accents in the spot as faux Hispanic.
An Instacart spokesperson stressed that this was not the case in a statement. “The characters are intentionally fictional and stylized, inspired by a specific musical era and genre—not by any real individual, culture or community—and any perceived resemblance in accent, attire or presentation is unintentional.”
Rocket’s ad promotes unity
There were, of course, some welcome exceptions. Rocket Mortgage continued to champion a storyline promoting inclusion and unity in its in-game spot, “America Needs Neighbors Like You,” as it did during the Super Bowl last year.
The spot, created by agency Mirimar, shows a Latino family moving into a seemingly unwelcoming neighborhood, set to the tune of a Lady Gaga rendition of Fred Rogers’ “Won’t You Be My Neighbor.” A storm prompts young girls within a white and Latino family to find friendship and leads to other neighbors putting aside their differences to help each other out.
“These diverse characters were very intentional in the scriptwriting process—we wanted to represent America’s diversity and showcase the authentic tensions that exist in neighborhoods,” a Rocket spokesperson said. “We also wanted to show how kindness and neighborliness are a way to overcome our differences, and to remind the country that a simple hello or offer to help those who live next door brings us closer together.”
It seems that as other advertisers lean into humor and nostalgia, Rocket Mortgage is one of the few overtly providing a deeper message promoting unity at a time when the U.S. feels increasingly divided.
Still, Rocket Chief Marketing Officer Jonathan Mildenhall stressed in a statement that the ad promotes “a civic message not a political message. We want to encourage intentional kindness and neighborliness,” he said.
Boehringer Ingelheim’s first-ever Big Game spot, starring actors Octavia Spencer and Vergara, also stands out as a good representation of Hispanic culture, some people said.
Kai Wright, an industry strategic adviser and lecturer at Columbia University, uses a five-point system to evaluate ads for inclusivity. The five areas he said he grades an ad to determine if it well represents the community it intends to reach, includes “lexicon,” meaning it “is doing something unique that the community would identify with”; audio cues that resonate with a particular community; strong visuals that captivate the audience; “experience drivers,” meaning the ad is reinforcing some sort of ritual a particular community can get behind; and strong cultural connections.
Based on this system, which he calls the LAVEC method, Wright said Boehringer Ingelheim’s spot scored high (an 89 out of 100). The pharmaceutical brand worked with the American Diabetes Association, National Kidney Foundation, WomenHeart and The Mended Hearts on a campaign to showcase the importance of health screenings.
Spencer and Vergara appear in the action-packed ad on a mission to help people understand how to manage high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes. Wright said the actors represent Black and Hispanic women, two groups that are prone to such conditions, and they provide actionable steps to improve their lives.
“The ad incorporates community values of advocacy and proactive care,” Wright said. “By reframing ‘silent signals’ as a call to action, it aligns with the tribe’s desire to ‘know their numbers’ and advocate for their own health before it’s too late.”
Both actors were good fits for the ad because they share personal and family health histories with these conditions, he added.
Boehringer Ingelheim declined to comment.
Arsuaga also praised the ad for being one of the only so far to prominently feature a Latina celebrity. She did note, however, that she’d like to see more brands branch out and hire Hispanic talent more under the radar than Vergara, who rose to fame as a lead on the hit sitcom “Modern Family.”
“When people think about Hispanic talent, it’s like, Sofía Vergara is your token person,” Arsuaga said. “I don’t want to minimize her because she’s a great actor and is doing great things, but there are a lot of other people that could be used for important talent during these ads.”
Macy’s has been consistent in its annual support of Black History Month, Black-owned brands, and UNCF scholarships.
Yet the 2026 celebration depicted above is a carbon copy of the 2024 version below.
Advertising Age reported on new business pitches won by holding companies in 2025, with Publicis Groupe, WPP, and Omnicom (pre-IPG acquisition) taking the top 3 positions, respectively.
The leaderboard displayed: Publicis sucked up 1,458 wins; WPP nabbed 672 wins; Omnicom collected 656 wins.
How did the wins ignite layoffs, especially for losing White advertising agencies?
Also, how did the White holding companies rank in Prime Redlining, screwing non-White advertising agencies during account reviews?
Publicis won twice as many new business pitches as WPP or Omnicom in 2025
By Brian Bonilla
Publicis Groupe dominated the new business front in 2025, winning 56% of all global billings from new business opportunities, according to the latest new business report ranking holding companies from Mediasense.
Of the 3,885 pitches tallied by the consultancy, Publicis won 1,458. WPP took second place with 672 wins; Omnicom was right behind with 656 wins. The rankings included Interpublic Group of Companies, which was acquired by Omnicom late last year, as its own entity with 192 total wins. If the wins at Omnicom and IPG were combined, Omnicom would have been second in total wins.
Publicis, WPP and Omnicom weren’t immediately available for comment.
In an interview with Ad Age, Greg Paull, Mediasense’s president of global growth, said the ranking corrects a misnomer about the French holding company.
“I think people see Publicis as a media-driven holding company, but actually it [showed] a diversity of wins in social, public relations, creative, influencer, and data,” he said.
Publicis’ new business revenue from creative ($622.8 million) was higher than its new business revenue from media ($471 million).
That’s especially notable because the number of creative pitches and billings from those pitches overall was down 17% from the prior year, according to Mediasense. The number of media pitches dropped 11% and media billings were 17% lower than in 2024.
WPP also had a strong showing creatively ($363.8 million in new business), led by Ogilvy, Paull said, but its results were “dragged down” by media, which posted a $127.1 million decline in new business revenue. As a result, the British holding company’s media revenue from account losses exceeded its revenue from wins.
2025 was the most dominant year for a holding company, according to Paull, who has been helping compile these rankings since 2002.
“We never had a year this dominant,” Paull said. “Last year, 2024, [Publicis] won about 40% of the business, and even that was a record.”
The New Press presents a new twist on a standard BHM line: Black History Is Living History.
Buy any Black History titles and receive 30% off—along with a free Lift Every Voice eBook.
MediaPost noted multiple UK sources reported WPP plans to combine its White advertising agency networks—Ogilvy, VML, and AKQA—under a single banner called WPP Creative.
In other words, WPP CEO Cindy Rose is mimicking predecessor Mark Read, as well as copying the consolidation schemes of other holding companies.
Adland commoditization is simplifying to Adland commode.
Reports: WPP’s Next Restructuring Move Will Realign Creative Agencies
By Steve McClellan
WPP is preparing to reorganize its major creative agency networks—Ogilvy, VML and AKQA—under a single entity called WPP Creative, according to multiple reports out of the UK on Monday.
The move, expected to be announced later this month, is part of an ongoing streamlining effort at the holding company.
Last year the firm restructured its media agencies including Mindshare, Wavemaker and EssenceMediacom, previously organized within GroupM, under a new entity called WPP Media.
Production operations were similarly restructured under WPP Productions last month.
A WPP spokesperson said the company had no comment on the reports.
But the firm has announced that it will be releasing full-year results as well as a “strategy update” on February 26.
WPP has been trying to streamline its far-flung operations for years in a bid to make them easier for clients to understand and access. When Cindy Rose took over as CEO last September, she said the company hadn’t gone far enough with the effort and pledged to do more.
She launched a new strategic review designed to further simplify and integrate the firm’s offering while simultaneously improving execution. She also pledged to build a “high performance culture,” expand the firm’s addressable market and strengthen financial operations.
And she’s under the gun to show results. Over the past year WPP shares are down more than 60% and have continued to fall since the beginning of the year by about 20%.
Last week, most of the major holdco stocks and others outside the sector were down amid worries that AI would threaten, not improve, future revenue streams at many companies.
Marketing analyst Madison And Wall notes that Publicis successfully centralized its creative operations several years ago, sensing correctly “the preferences that global marketers were expressing and the need for scale to free up resources for internal investments.”
“Centralizing resources should be helpful for WPP as it was for Publicis, at least if doing so sets the stage for an eventual combination of the creative networks into a monolithic business unit," the advisory commented.
“The disadvantages of complexity and limited scale that follow from operating multiple creative networks no longer offset the advantages of operating several distinct brands within a single agency holding company, such as a potentially improved ability to attract talent and the higher costs they require. Today’s news is a step that appears to recognize this reality.”
This story has been updated.
USA TODAY offers Special Edition Black History Month 2026, inviting readers to take a 100-Year Journey for only $4.95. At least the publication didn’t declare Black History is USA TODAY History.
This Mickey D’s Super Bowl campaign from Wieden+Kennedy NY is explained as follows:
While other brands compete for pre-game and in-game attention, we’re focusing on the moment that’s ownable to McDonald’s—the morning after any big night, especially the Super Bowl.
Everything we do starts with a fan truth. This idea came from a pretty universal one: There’s nothing like McDonald’s Breakfast to help you recover after a big night.
We found that millions of Americans planned to take the Monday after the Super Bowl off from work. Some say it should be a national holiday for…recovery. Even if you still have work, your body wants nothing more than to be horizontal. So, we thought, let’s give that opportunity to our fans.
The idea: “The horizontal breakfast”. While the country either literally is horizontal or dreams to be, we flipped our communications this match their orientation—billboards, the TV spot, our social channels all turned horizontal—because that’s the posture many of our fans will be in as they recover from the big game. McDonald’s breakfast, specifically the hot honey sausage + egg biscuit is the thing that will help you get vertical again (or at least reason enough to get vertical for a moment).
The breakfast features the hot honey sausage + egg biscuit, hash browns, and a coke.
The only thing our fans will have to do is lift their finger and press order in the app.
Okay, except there’s plenty of evidence showing how eating while lying down—or even lying down after eating—is not healthy.
In short, this campaign is wildly irresponsible coming from a leading junk food advertiser. The responsible White advertising agency must’ve been asleep at the wheel—or lying down on the job.
Advertising Age published a perspective cautioning brands targeting Latino consumers to not ignore how ICE impacts lives in the segment. In short, the author thinks brands should avoid staying silent and playing it safe when communities face pressures.
It’s a debatable proposition, as brands don’t necessarily benefit from taking political stances. Indeed, there are many examples of classic fails when brands publicly advocated for causes.
Sure, Archbishop Desmond Tutu declared, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
But such leaders didn’t have to contend with brand destructors like President Donald J. Trump, the Gaslighter-in-Chief behind ICE.
Brand silence is not necessarily siding with oppressors. Rather, it can be a sign of respect, in terms of standing clear of situations where brands have no business, so to speak.
Why brand silence isn’t a safe strategy when communities are under pressure
By God-is Rivera
Every major brand briefing seems to start the same way lately: Hispanic and Latinx consumers are our fastest-growing segment. The data backs it up.
Nielsen reports that Hispanic households represent about 14.7% of U.S. households but account for 15% of total consumer spending and 23% of U.S. dollar growth in retail. Their impact is outsized relative to their population size.
But there’s a glaring disconnect between how aggressively brands are pursuing Hispanic consumers and how little they’re acknowledging the lived reality of that community.
Today, families are navigating fear and instability due to ICE. Cultural identity is being politicized. People are making daily decisions about where to shop, travel, work, or even leave their homes under conditions many marketers have chosen to treat as “off-limits” for brand engagement.
You cannot build sustainable growth with a community you refuse to fully see. Here’s how to back your brand with values that resonate:
Growth without context is not a strategy
When brands say Hispanic consumers are their growth engine while ignoring the pressures shaping their lives, it reveals a dangerous assumption that purchasing power is disconnected from lived experience.
Everyone knows the meme-able Jet2holidays audio that became synonymous with travel fails. The brand got in on the joke and leaned in appropriately, engaging with the moment and expanding cultural relevance well beyond its traditional audience.
But when the same audio was later used in content depicting immigration enforcement and detainees being transported, Jet2Holidays was abruptly pulled into a far more serious conversation. They were prepared. The company responded quickly, publicly distancing itself from the usage.
Brands that pursue growth without understanding how cultural meaning travels, especially in volatile moments, leave themselves vulnerable to being defined by contexts they didn’t plan for. And if they don’t respond to the situation in a timely manner, or ignore it, it can be a recipe for brand-building disaster.
Silence is being mistaken for brand safety
Many marketers believe the safest move right now is to stand still. Say nothing. Delay campaigns. Shelve anything that might be perceived as risky.
But recent examples suggest the opposite.
After facing intense backlash over Pride-related merchandise, Target scaled back displays in certain markets, framing the decision as a move to protect employee and customer safety. The reaction among many consumers—particularly younger and multicultural audiences—was swift. For some, the pullback signaled retreat rather than protection. Boycotts and social media protests have cost the retailer.
When brands retreat entirely, consumers are far less charitable than brands expect.
Hispanic consumers are also more likely to research corporate policies and participate in boycotts based on a brand’s stance, with 51% participating in at least one boycott according to a study by Numerator.
Your fastest-growing consumer is also your most attuned
Hispanic consumers are deeply attuned to brand values. Further research from Numerator shows 60% of Hispanic shoppers say they would stop buying from brands that don’t reflect their values.
Nike has long understood that growth with multicultural audiences requires consistency in beliefs. When the brand has taken public positions aligned with its stated values, it has weathered backlash while maintaining long-term loyalty, particularly among younger, diverse consumers. While not every move has been universally praised, Nike’s audience understands what the brand stands for.
That matters deeply to Hispanic consumers. These audiences don’t expect brands to speak on everything. They expect them not to disappear when values are tested.
This moment requires cultural readiness, not crisis comms
Too many brands are still relying on outdated crisis playbooks. What’s required now is cultural readiness. Your brand needs to understand communities before moments erupt, to know which voices matter, and to make decisions anchored in real values.
From its response to global refugee crises to its clear stance against discrimination on the platform, Airbnb has invested in systems, policies, and partnerships that allow it to act quickly when cultural moments arise. These decisions were enabled by groundwork laid well before public pressure mounted.
Companies that have invested in this kind of readiness move differently. They respond with clarity because they’ve already done the work of understanding who they are and who they serve. But readiness doesn’t always have to be defensive. It can recognize moments of positive cultural momentum, such as HRC’s #LoveWins, and grow by showing up in ways that feel timely.
Growth is a relationship, not an extraction model
The Hispanic and Latinx community represents an enormous opportunity, but opportunity is not a one-way transaction. Growth without care is not growth. The brands that will win the future are not the ones that waited for the moment to pass.
They recognized a simple truth: When the community is under pressure, business as usual no longer works.
God-is Rivera is chief strategy officer at Burrell Communications Group
A Proclamation from the President of the United States of America takes the standard “Black History is American History” approach.
