This Week in Strategy: No jokes this week
Hi Strat Pack,
I want to take a second this week to talk about structural racial inequality in America. I think many of us are still processing everything going on.
There are literally generations worth of pent-up pain and anger and frustration and grief being released right now. Far and away, the vast majority of that release is via peaceful protests. These protests are being met with battering rams, tear gas, and aggression. New York City (among others) has imposed its first curfew in over 50 years. And yet for the past ten days, still the protesters show up, and still they are peaceful. And the protests keep growing. It feels like we are in a moment where real, positive change is possible. I hope it is. I hope you feel it is too.
I want to share a quote that I picked up, from all places, at a lecture on the history of emojis: A person doesn’t need to be racist or sexist themselves to take part in a culture that is based towards sex and race. All they have to do is perpetuate it.
Amy Cooper, the woman who called the cops on a black man in Central Park because he asked her to leash her dog, is a self described liberal.
If there's one thing to read this week, please read this: Amy Cooper: The Paradox of the Shameless White Liberal How pious white anti-racism can contribute to racist behavior
For whites who inhabit social circles where people go around denouncing racism to one another constantly — painting themselves as staunch advocates for social justice — it would become almost impossible for these people to see the role that they play in perpetuating systemic inequality.
I think for many of us, this is a time of reflection and education. To understand how we have perpetuated and benefitted from systemic inequality at work, with our housing choices, with our interactions with authority...and so on and so on.
I am by no means exempt from this process. I am a cis white male who grew up in one of the nicer parts of Connecticut. There is no doubt that I have spent a good chunk of my life insulated in the comfortable shield of whiteness (a phrase I borrowed from Giselle Buchanan). I am learning and I am listening.
Anti-Racism Resources
This document is intended to serve as a resource to white people and parents to deepen our anti-racism work. If you haven’t engaged in anti-racism work in the past, start now. Feel free to circulate this document on social media and with your friends, family, and colleagues.
75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice
Item as described.
I hope that next week we will be in a more positive place where I can lead off with a terribly corny one liner and share goofy internet detritus with you. But this is not something that will—or should—pass within a week.
The one thing to read this week
1) If ‘Black Lives Matter’ to brands, where are your black board members? [Marketing Week]
[ED Note: This article is long but important, please read all of it. There's a pretty interesting anecdote at the beginning of this article that I'm not including. It's main takeaway is: Marketers need to remember we are not the consumer.]
Brands that profess to support racial justice on social media without a single black board member aren’t helping the cause, they’re just being hypocrites.
We marketers live in a branding bubble of our own creation. We think brands matter. That our brand matters. We think advertising is important. We think other people care. And with each passing year our branding bubble appears to become less and less transparent. An increasing proportion of marketers lose touch with the consumers they are meant to take their coordinates from, and fall for the bullshit that their brands and their communications make any kind of difference to society at large – and that this impact is a crucial part of their job.
This week that bubble was all but impossible to ignore. America has been riven by the disgraceful, horrific murder of George Floyd. And bubble-bound marketers have been climbing over themselves to speak out, make a difference, take a stand and generally do the usual socially aware hanky-panky that makes them feel good about themselves while making zero difference to anything or anyone out there in the real world.
Inside the marketing bubble we think brands and marketers are being “brave”. Outside, the world burns and no-one gives a fuck about our cute little tweets, clever social media strategy or blacked-out logos.
Take the tawdry corporate soixante-neuf that played out this week between Nike and Adidas. It was a gag-inducing example of bubble marketing at its worst. First, Nike launched a monochrome ad across social media. “Don’t think this doesn’t affect you…Let’s all be part of the change,” it exclaimed as a tinkling piano played a melancholy tune in the background.
While it’s great that Nike wants to make a statement about racism and the lack of representation that African Americans face, it should also be apparent that Nike is not part of the change it seeks to promote. With the exception of its social media campaign, which, let’s all agree, makes two fifths of fuck-all difference to anything, it really isn’t doing much to confront this issue.
Just look at Nike’s leadership team, shown below. I am not talking about the long list of external directors or the lower level officers of the company. I am talking about the people that actually run Nike: its leadership team. Despite focusing on sports that have a significant skew towards African American athletes, despite making much of its North American profit from black consumers, despite signing many of the world’s most famous athletes of colour as spokespeople, its leadership team is about as black as I am.
And then, just as the corporate hypocrisy was fading, Adidas jumped in and forced me to run for the bathroom once again. The sporting rival was so moved by Nike’s video, it retweeted the ad with its own message of support. “Together is how we move forward,” tweeted Adidas. “Together is how we make change.”
If you want to see a literal definition of what the marketing bubble looks like, go onto social media and look at all the industry arsehats retweeting what a “powerful” and “amazing” moment of solidarity that tweet represented. They are literally storming the White House and choking to death black men on the street in the middle of the day, and marketers are getting emotional about retweeting a video that was, in and of itself, total dog piss in the first place.
Together is not “how we make change”. It’s as socially unrealistic as it is grammatically incorrect. We make change by enacting it within our organisations and therefore becoming the exemplars for others. If you care about black lives, you don’t get inspired by an Instagram post. You get inspired by black faces in the boardroom. Companies need to become the change they are tweeting about. Walk the walk before you tweet the tweet. Though that second step really isn’t necessary.
But Adidas cannot do that. Once again, its leadership team is just as white-bread as Nike despite also being in a predominantly, or certainly significantly, African American-influenced business. Its own executive board looks like it has just come in from a fun day of golf at an exclusive Scandinavian country club.
I am certainly not saying any of these senior people are racists. I am not even lobbying for more diversity at the executive levels of these companies – it would be nice but I have no clue about how diversity and leadership actually works. What I am saying is that this social media support for Black Lives Matter is not reflected in the way these companies operate and that, rather than lecturing consumers and society on how we should behave, they might want to put down their smartphones and sort-themselves-the-fuck-out first.
Then there was L’Oréal telling us that “speaking out is worth it”. I really hope so. Because I am telling L’Oréal that rather than advising the rest of us on how we should be living our lives it should take a long, hard look at its leadership team. Because change begins at home, not on social media.
And the same goes for that most worthy of companies, Apple. The brand was also among those observing ‘Blackout Tuesday’. It spent the day using its various platforms to “support Black artists, Black creators and Black communities”. Its usual Beats 1 radio schedule was cancelled for the day and replaced with an all-black playlist. Apple Music was also stripped back to focus on a single playlist ‘For Us, By Us’, featuring exclusively black artists.
Which is great. But kind of not great. You have that feeling of watching your uncle Terry and his wife trying to dance to hip-hop at a wedding. If Apple were really serious about the issue of black representation, it would move the focus away from messaging and music, and towards its leadership team and corporate advancement. I do not think it is appropriate to be talking about a “steadfast support of the Black voices that define music” but have none of them in your executive team. At least your logo is black, I suppose.
Again, I am not saying that companies have to have black people in their leadership teams as a general policy. But if you believe what you are telling the market about black voices, it should start with switching out some of your white executives in your upper echelons for executives of colour. Not because these people are bad. Not because you have to encourage more diversity in the boardroom. But because you are claiming to care about black issues and black representation – so do something meaningful about it.
Of course, that won’t happen. Social media is as easy and inexpensive to implement as it is ineffective. The ultimate box-ticking tactic. And it has the added chaff value of making it look like a company gives a shit about black people, which will, paradoxically, enable them to continue to employ absolutely none of them at the top of the company.
“We may not currently have any black people on the board,” comes the prepared answer, “but did you see our fierce tweet about inequality last week or the blacked-out logo we produced the week before? Respect."
I could literally keep writing this column, and getting angrier and angrier for the rest of the day. The research I did for it took about an hour and resulted in (checks notes) 46 examples of companies that claim to care about black lives and yet have managed to construct a leadership team – in this advanced age of 2020 – that manages to steadfastly avoid any and all black faces.
And, before you ask, I am not trying to be politically correct here. I am a man who uses words like ‘fuck’ and ‘tits’ – a lot. The long suffering sub-editors at Marketing Week will confirm, readily, that I gave up on appearing socially and politically aware a long time ago. I really don’t care about any of that PC bullshit and am strongly suspicious of those that trot it out at every possible occasion.
But that lack of personal concern for ‘cool’, and the giving of not even the faintest of fuck about how I come across, makes me weirdly qualified to speak up against the companies that use social media to project one image while concealing an almost total disregard for equality and fairness at their highest strata of corporate strategy. If these companies really wanted to do something meaningful, they would get off social media and get on with changing who is in charge. One black COO is worth a billion ‘Black Lives Matter’ tweets.
There was a rumour of a famous industry meeting between Beyoncé and Reebok last year. They supposedly met to discuss the possibility of a co-branded collection. According to reports, the Reebok team were midway through their pitch when the star stopped the presentation and asked: “Is this the team that’ll be working on my product?”
The Reebok group, who have since steadfastly denied the incident, confirmed that this was indeed the project team. At which point Beyoncé got up and walked towards the door. “Nobody in this room reflects my background, my skin colour, and where I’m from, and what I want to do,” she reportedly said over her shoulder. And exited the room.
It’s a confronting story. But you can see Beyoncé’s point. If you are serious about black lives, show me some. Otherwise it’s talk. Social media talk. From inside a brand bubble that remains part of the problem. Not part of any long-term solution.
2) Navigating COVID-19: Survival, adaptation and recovery by Les Binet [Warc]
Part of the WARC Guide to Marketing in the COVID-19 Recession (That's right, we're still in the middle of this whole pandemic thing too) Don't have a Warc subscription? Don't worry about it! They recently moved this
The COVID-19 recession is not just an economic recession – it’s also a humanitarian, social and political crisis – which means that the normal rules of marketing and business may not apply.
In this article, Les Binet (Head of Effectiveness, adam&eveDDB) explores:
How businesses should focus on doing what is most helpful and in the public interest, rather than focusing on making money in the short term
What brands could do to help “The War Effort”, how a brand behaves may have a bigger effect on brand perceptions than advertising
Whether direct response advertising can also play an important functional role
Opportunities for some big, emotional, morale-boosting advertising, without looking opportunistic and self-serving
3) Media representation is driving LGBT+ acceptance, says P&G study [The Drum]
Ahead of Pride next month, Procter and Gamble (P&G) has spoken up about the need to increase LGBT+ visibility in advertising and released a fresh spot that acts as a stark reminder that there is still considerable ground to be made. Yesterday (27 May) it released the findings of its first-ever ‘LGBT+ Inclusion in Advertising and Media’ study alongside its strategic partner, Glaad.
The report found that non-LGBT+ consumers who are exposed to queer people in the media are more likely to be accepting and supportive of their issues. 80% of respondents of those exposed said they were supportive of equal rights for LGBT+ people when compared to the respondents who had not recently seen LGBT+ people in the media (70%).
It also claimed media exposure makes people more comfortable with LGBT+ people in their daily lives, with 72% of respondents claiming to be comfortable learning a family member was LGBT+, compared to those who had not been exposed (66%).
The respondents also generally looked favourably at brands that use queer people in their advertising, with 80% of respondents finding it reflects that the company is making a statement about the importance of recognizing LGBTQ people.
“If you were to grade the advertising industry right now [in terms of accurate portrayal and visibility of the LGBT+ community] it would be an incomplete grade... class is not over yet,” insists P&G’s brand boss, Marc Pritchard. “The industry - including P&G - has a lot of work to do. It’s only been the last few years that we’ve begun to actively get going on this.”
In his 38 years at P&G, Pritchard notes that he has received 'heat' over the years for tackling LGBT+ issues - but admits the resistance is starting to wear off.
“When you get external heat, you literally get groups who are threatening to boycott, and that starts to really affect you,” he explains. “We finally got to the point where we said - we may get boycotted, but we're moving forward because it's the right thing to do. And over time those threats dissipate, you end up realizing it's actually good for business.”
After "getting your house in order and shifting mindsets", Pritchard says ensuring P&G has the right insights can be the toughest part of all. “You've got to take the time and make sure your agency partners and our marketing teams are diverse. You've got to make sure you're sensitive. We spend a lot of time with Sarah Kate Ellis (Glaad president and chief exec) and with people like Michael Chanak (ex-P&G LGBT+ activist) who say here is something you should be thinking about. We go to and ask what you going to think - is this reflecting an accurate portrayal?”
For more than a year, P&G has been strategic partners with Glaad, which it says has helping to drive responsible LGBT+ inclusion across the advertising industry as a force for good.
Click through to check out some brand films that P&G did, in association with Great Big Story, as well as a look back at some of their inclusivity advertising
4) Quick Hits: A few articles that are concise, important, interesting, impactful, and I'm not going to write long descriptions for them
New study recommends couples wear face masks while having sex [Cosmopolitan] Couples should have sex while wearing face masks to reduce the risk of transmitting Covid-19 to one another, a new study suggests. On 8 May, researchers at Harvard University published a study in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine on the safest ways to have sex during the coronavirus outbreak. It's worth noting at this point, however, that it is currently illegal in the UK to have sex with anyone who does not live in the same house as you. But in the US, where it's not completely forbidden to sleep with someone outside your own household (although it is banned in many states to socialise with anyone you don't live with), scientists are advising taking precautions like face masks to minimise risk of spread. What a time to be alive.
Cuomo curfew billboard sparks dystopia memes [Daily Dot] To help get the news out over the curfew, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) had turned to a billboard in Columbus Circle, which flashes messages about curfew, and a notice that says “looting insults the memory of George Floyd.” But more than announcing the news, it’s sparking serious dystopia vibes. The article says it resembles Blade Runner but I am strongly feeling a 1984/Big Brother vibe. Also for some reason, Back to the Future 2
Interest in the George Floyd protests has soared past the coronavirus [Axios] The big picture: The media has the ability to shape the outcomes of both crises, depending on the way that it covers them. The extensive visual coverage of the protests has reinforced the intensity of the wider #BlackLivesMatter movement, even if only a small percentage of Americans comparatively were actually involved in the demonstrations. Meanwhile, the lack of visuals around the coronavirus, in addition to loosened stay-at-home restrictions, has made it easier for networks and the public to move on, even though many places in the country are experiencing an uptick in cases and/or deaths.
On Sunday, around 2.5% of the combined airtime of CNN, MSNBC and Fox News mentioned the coronavirus, or related words (COVID-19, pandemic, etc.), while around 25% of the airtime mentioned the Floyd protests or related words (Black Lives Matter, demonstrations, etc.. The big picture: The media has the ability to shape the outcomes of both crises, depending on the way that it covers them.
On social media, interest in the fallout from the Floyd killing took off as protests raged at the end of last week and surpassed the coronavirus on Thursday, according to data from NewsWhip. By Saturday, there were 14 times as many interactions on stories about the protests.
On search, "George Floyd" overtook "coronavirus" as the most popular search in the U.S. on Wednesday evening and continued to outrank it through the weekend, according to data from Google Trends. "Minneapolis" overtook "coronavirus" on Thursday night — the second evening when protests turned violent.
Online, articles about "police brutality" were 6.8 times more in demand than articles about "coronavirus," averaging 3,800 views per article, according to data from web analytics company Parse.ly
5) Department of Great Work
RGA having the bollocks to RT a video of police assaulting an old man in Buffalo, NY [Twitter] CONTENT WARNING: Blood, Violence against an innocent old man, absolute fucking apathy on behalf of cops who seem to keep forgetting that We The People pay their salary. As of Thursday night, the 75-year-old man was hospitalized in serious, but stable condition. The video is appalling but I am so goddamn proud of RGA for using their platform to amplify the extent of police brutality happening right now
Lego Pulls Advertising for Police-Related Toys, Donates $4 Million to Fight Racism and Inequality [Vulture] Given the political undertones of The Lego Movie, it’s no surprise that Lego is putting its money where its mouth is in regards to issues pertaining to social justice. Everything is not awesome, but Lego is doing its part to fix that.
Call it Covid-19 [YouTube] a response to the rising discrimination against Asians around the world as a direct result of the COVID-19 outbreak. This piece was created by Asiancy, a Wieden+Kennedy affinity group.
Blue Apron post for #BlackoutTuesday [Instagram] What I really liked about this was that the brand clearly laid out actionable steps they can take, and thought this was a great example of how brands can participate without sounding empty.
Ben & Jerry’s pointed call to ‘dismantle white supremacy’ stands out among tepid corporate America statements [Washington Post] Ben & Jerry’s posted a lengthy and pointed message on its website blaming Floyd’s killing on “inhumane police brutality that is perpetuated by a culture of white supremacy. The company called for white America to “acknowledge its privilege” and for the need for action to “dismantle white supremacy.”
6) Platform Updates
After Facebook staff walkout, Zuckerberg defends no action on Trump posts [CBS News] Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg isn't budging over his refusal to take action on inflammatory posts by President Donald Trump that spread misinformation about voting by mail and, many said, encouraged violence against protesters. Zuckerberg's critics, however, are multiplying. Some employees have publicly quit over the issue and civil-rights leaders who met with him Monday night denounced Zuckerberg's explanation for choosing to leave Trump's posts alone as "incomprehensible." Criticism has been mounting after Mr. Trump's social media posts about protests in Minneapolis and across the country in the wake of George Floyd's death became increasingly aggressive. Full disclosure: the link includes autoplay video with the sound on, but that's what you get for a well written piece with no paywall.
Twitter accuses President Trump of making 'false claims' [BBC News] Twitter has accused the US president of making false claims, in one of the app's own articles covering the news. The move - which effectively accuses the leader of lying - refers to a tweet by Donald Trump about his first defence secretary. It follows last week's explosive confrontation, which saw Twitter fact-check two of President Trump's tweets and label another as glorifying violence.
What other social networks can learn from Snapchat’s rebuke of Trump [The Verge] You can preserve someone’s right to speak while also denying them the benefits of algorithmic promotion. President Trump’s verified Snapchat account will no longer be promoted within the app after executives concluded that his tweets over the weekend promoted violence, the company said today. His account, RealDonaldTrump, will remain on the platform and continue to appear on search results. But he will no longer appear in the app’s Discover tab, which promotes news publishers, elected officials, celebrities, and influencers
As always, the full archive is available here. Was this email forwarded to you? Want to start getting this on a weekly basis? All I need is your email, everything else is optional. Thanks for sticking around as always. See you next week!