HOW DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION HAVE SHAPED RAPP’S MISSION AND APPROACH

July 19, 2021

THE EVOLUTION OF DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY

In the summer of a health crisis unlike anything we’d seen in over a century, the world reached a tipping point — because of a different type of pandemic. On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was killed by the Minneapolis police. He was just one of at least 164 Black people killed by police in America in the first eight months of 2020, but when The New York Times released a compilation of video footage documenting the moments leading up to Floyd’s death, the world’s collective anger finally reached a fever pitch.

Brands like Nike, L’Oréal, and Visa spoke out on social media, with hundreds of others making vague declarations of support or simply posting black squares. But the extent to which we saw companies scrambling to craft appropriate messaging showed just how unprepared, out of touch, and reactive many brands are to the realities of the world we live in.

See the full whitepaper here.