The Project

I was commissioned by Race to PR, a Los Angeles-based racial justice collective to develop a strategic campaign to raise awareness on the lack of racial diversity in the PR and creative field industry.

Background

Race to PR is an interventional based model to challenge Public Relations agencies to be more racially inclusive.

Discussion

In accounting for the lack of ethnic diversity in the public relations sector, it is important to understand the obstacles that hinder racial inclusiveness in the creative service industry (advertising & public relations). To this end, this campaign sought to identify and address negative perceptions and attitudinal hurdles such as the implicit bias that white public relations practitioners may subconsciously or unconsciously harbor as a result of previously acquired beliefs.

Obstacle

Addressing attitudinal barriers such as racial biases whether explicit or implicit is a critical component of this interventional-based approach. Doing so is important as empirical research shows that often-times, implicit racial biases are correlated to past negative interactions with members of certain races or even acquired through family ties. Thus, targeting the behavioral hurdles responsible for upholding Whiteness in the PR industry was an essential component of this social change advocacy campaign. This led me on a research-driven excavation, delving into behavioral psychology and canvassing the scientific literature landscape, extrapolating relevant gleanings and providing factual and research-based information to strengthen and give credibility to this social change campaign.

Result

This campaign was launched in 2017, resulting in several PR organizations shifting their hiring practices. The campaign gained additional momentum following the tragic murder of George Floyd with Race to PR instituting mechanisms of accountability by sending a series of emails to the CEOs of leading agencies, holding them directly responsible for their lack of racial diversity. As a result the head of global communication for TBWA Chiat Day Worldwide, a global advertising agency headquartered in NYC took ownership for its failure to be racially inclusive, pledging to roll out inclusive measures and center BIPOC voices. A few days later, Erin Riley CEO at TBWA Los Angeles, (CDLA) personally reached out to me via email, acknowledging that the industry was stained with systemic racism. As part of her commitment to center diversity, equity, and inclusion, the TBWA collective rolled out specific Los Angeles commitments, promising to prioritize results over words.