The creative marketing and design services industry is so white because it chooses to be and this lack of diversity is causing tone-deaf content that is costing brands their reputation and ultimately hurting their bottom line.
In April 2017, Shea Moisture ostracized its most loyal fan base — black women — after releasing an ad that featured almost no diversity. During the same month, Pepsi released a short that positioned Kendall Jenner as an activist who solved inequality with a can of Pepsi, and in October of the same year, Dove came under fire for a soap ad that showed a black woman cleaning herself and becoming white.
In 2019, during Black History Month, we witnessed one of the world’s biggest luxury brands launch an $890 blackface sweater. After getting blasted on Twitter and being forced to remove its deeply offensive sweater from stores, Gucci then made the jaw-dropping statement that it didn’t know blackface images were racist.
The world is moving forward and the advertising world isn’t.
Audacity exists to create a power shift within the industry. A shift where the agency producing the work reflects its intended audience. The world is becoming more culturally diverse and brands are looking for agencies to authentically and truly represent them.
At Audacity our mission is to be the truth. We are a boutique black-led marketing and advertising agency, pushing the boundaries of modern marketing and advertising through an innovative and equity centered approach. We believe that the communications sector must make space for intentionality and authenticity, but without pressure being applied we cannot expect predominantly white advertising institutions to contribute in a meaningful way to a more inclusive and innovative industry that ultimately reflects a more whole society.
At Audacity, we add value to our customers by telling them the truth and making sure they are communicating their truth to their target audiences with the most modern designs, culturally competent content and innovative strategies. We will push our clients and the industry to move as boldly as we do because we believe that the world is a better place that way.
Recently we have been selected to be a part of the Just Capital cohort powered by the Partnership for Southern Equity and The RockefellerFoundation. As a part of this cohort, we will receive funding and professional resources to improve access to capital and engage with other diverse founders to improve access to capital for diverse entrepreneurs.
As a member of the CommunityBuild Ventures (CBV) family we believe in their mission to eliminate racial disparities by developing powerful, impactful and racial equity driven leaders and organizations and know that we are in alignment with this work through our own discipline in communications. We proudly represent the other members of the CBV team in this Just Capital cohort and hope to share the wealth that comes from this opportunity with the rest of the members of our powerful collective.
We are passionate and experienced people who approach your vision & purpose from all angles – strategically, creatively, analytically, and digitally with equity at the center of everything that we do; every aspect examined, every possibility explored, every opportunity imagined.
