Please note I wrote this first thing on 5/30 and I will be updating this post with more brands that are authentically addressing issues of systematic racism. Thanks to those who have sent me links (Deb, Maggie).
What a horrible week for our country.
I am heartbroken at the violence across the country, including multiple incidences here in Oregon. We are better than this. Aren’t we? Who can lead us out of the current situation and help us start to address issues of systematic racism? It sure as hell isn’t our government.
It comes down to brands. Brands and empathy.
Brands have a choice–to either take a stand against racism, or to sit this one out. It’s so easy to sit it out, isn’t it? To think that racism is so far outside of a brand’s wheelhouse as a rationale for not addressing what is now seen as a pandemic in our country.
And this is where empathy comes in. Brands that understand how people are feeling, how current events strike many of us to our very core, how so many of us are struggling with the idea of ‘what can we do’–these brands can help us, as individuals, find our voices to start to address the systematic racism so embedded in our country.
Nike did it.
Read more about it at Adweek in an article written by our colleague Doug Zanger:
here
Adweek also shared which brands are decrying racism on social media: here The list includes Ben & Jerry’s, Def Jam records, and several Minnneapolis-based professional sports franchises.
Reebok spoke out simply about the role of black people in our country here.
These brands all have deep roots in addressing issues in the African American community and of financially supporting organizations that address racism. Their words are authentic and courageous. This isn’t going to work for every brand. And brands shouldn’t expect to see any kind of financial reward.
But the bigger reward–the reward of encouraging people to think about these issues in an empathetic way, and to help people figure out what they personally can and will do to address this pandemic is priceless.