Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

There’s much to celebrate today, which is International Women’s Day, or IWD as it’s known on social media. While many brands are taking the day to tout the strides women have made, others are selfishly co-opting the moment in pursuit of profits. Meanwhile the PR community should have mixed emotions today too. PR has had plenty of success in recognizing women, yet sexism remains, as does a wage gap and a dearth of women in leadership roles.

Executives from APCO Worldwide studied the campaign against Nike and Colin Kaepernick on Twitter and found it wasn’t as widespread or authentic as it seemed at first glance. They conclude that brands should avoid rushing to respond to what appears to be negative social sentiment. Instead, they urge brands to study the elements behind anti-brand content before responding.

What a difference a year makes. After a 2018 Grammys ceremony that gave only one major award to a woman and prompted The Recording Academy president Neil Portnow to say that women should “step up” to advance their careers, the 2019 show was made deliberate moves to promote diversity. The 61st Annual Grammy Awards offered lessons on what diversity and inclusion currently mean to The Recording Academy, most for better and some for worse. Here’s what we learned.

As the PR News’ Top Women in PR awards luncheon approaches (Jan. 25, NYC), we look at why women continue to dominate PR in terms of numbers of jobs, yet are largely excluded from its leadership positions. We asked some of the women who will be honored next week about this and what can be done. They said the solutions should come from women and industry.

Diversity and PR are inextricably linked, yet communicators have talked about diversity for years and many issues remain within communications and many other sectors. PRSA-NY president Sharon Fenster offers five ways to bolster diversity in the PR industry and at brands and nonprofit organizations.

“Our decision to return the donation to Facebook and logging out of the platform for a week is part of a strategy to bring attention to Facebook ‘s failures in protecting the integrity of both our privacy and our vote,” NAACP’s Aba Blankson told PR News.

Even just a couple of years ago brands were more than a bit cautious when wading into social and political issues. Things are different now. Consider the size and scope of the 56 companies that signed a letter yesterday protesting rule changes for transgender people. Still, brands need to be careful when taking stands on social and political issues.

“Don’t be Pepsi.” That’s a piece of advice many influencer marketing experts have shared since the soda brand’s 2017 misstep, when it cast Kendall Jenner as a champion of diversity and the Black Lives Matter movement. Here, three influencer marketing experts share the pivotal roles diversity and inclusion are playing in the field—and how brands can ensure they get multicultural influencer marketing right.

Not all brand leaders ought to have their smartphones taken away. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has established a reputation as the rarest of figureheads—not only does she have her fingerprints on every piece of work that bears a connection to her “Wizarding World,” but she often responds to fans online directly, keeping up a dialogue and mitigating any controversies that arise.

All recent accusations of bias have one thing in common, the same thing that Facebook has dodged questions of reform or regulation over and generally failed to directly address: its proprietary, micro-targeting ad platform. It was this ad platform that allowed the Russians to pay for propaganda in rubles, it was this ad platform that allowed Cambridge Analytica to manipulate its third-party audience categories, and it was this ad platform that has brought the latest accusations of gender bias back to Facebook.