Kornfeld_MMA#5

Procter & Gamble (P&G) launched a campaign called My Black is Beautiful to address racial injustice in America. They aim to provide a voice for black individuals and groups to promote racial equality. P&G created an advertisement called The Talk, which highlights implicit racism in modern America. The ad gained popularity and won an Emmy Award. It aims to make people aware of their internal prejudices and suppress the harmful effects of preconceived notions. P&G strategically used high-viewership TV events and social media to reach a wide audience. The ad appeals to both black and white viewers, creating a sense of connection and addressing discrimination. The goal is to progress towards racial equality through conscious action by every individual. Hello to my listeners, welcome to my podcast episode titled The New Jim Crow. My name is Noah Kornfeld, and today I want to discuss how racial injustice manifests in contemporary America, and how companies like Procter & Gamble are using advertisements to combat modern day racism and move towards social equality. In 2006, P&G introduced a social justice campaign, called My Black is Beautiful. This campaign aims to share different perspectives, stories, and narratives on the state of racial justice in the United States. In short, My Black is Beautiful aims to provide a voice for black individuals and groups to enact change toward racial equality. P&G has a page on its website dedicated to showcasing the behind the scenes work and motivations for the campaign. These female black employees who started My Black is Beautiful are highly dedicated and motivated to speaking out against racial injustice. They believe their social responsibility to promote equality as extensions of a global corporation. Breanne Davis, a brand director in P&G's multicultural hair department, asserts that they are leading the charge by facilitating candid conversations with organizations and industry leaders to create solutions for the disparities that affect the black community. Additionally, one of the most influential initiatives in the overall campaign is an advertisement called The Talk, which discusses the presence of implicit racism in modern day America. The advertisement gained immense popularity and quickly even won the 2018 Emmy for Outstanding Commercial over fan favorites like Alexa Loses Her Voice for Amazon and Earth Shot on iPhone from Apple, according to CNBC's Lucy Handley. The Talk, in conjunction with historical and contemporary discrimination against black communities, successfully informs audiences about the modern day presence of implicit racism in hopes of connecting different groups of Americans toward the common goal of racial equality. First, I would like to discuss why creating and spreading advertisements like this one is necessary. I highly doubt that anybody still practices or agrees that slavery and 1960's Jim Crow laws were in any way morally correct or just. In this sense, racial equality has progressed significantly in the United States. It is no longer socially acceptable to be outwardly and directly discriminatory against a particular racial group, specifically black communities. However, this shift does not suggest that the United States is a racially and ethnically equal country. Instead, modern day racism takes the form of acting on implicit biases. In this clip, we can visualize how some mistakes, like forgetting your driver's license or rolling through a stop sign, become much more significant. Moreover, one of the implicit biases' more consequential effects manifests in criminal justice. According to a 2013 Law and Society Review article, jurors unknowingly enter the courtroom with a set of inferences informed by implicit bias that can determine how they decide what constitutes reasonable doubt. Because these biases can be unknown, even by the person who holds them, they can be more dangerous and more challenging to remove. While Jim Crow and slavery were undoubtedly more physically, emotionally, and mentally detrimental to the oppressed, these issues were outlawed with the help of legal action. On the other hand, holding implicit biases is not technically illegal, and eliminating them is far trickier. One way to diminish the effects of implicit bias is by making people aware of their internal prejudices. This is precisely where the advertisement message comes into play. By exposing as many viewers as possible to the talk, P&G is teaching its audiences about their implicit biases to suppress the harmful effects of their preconceived notions, especially against minority communities. But how did P&G successfully reach so many people? The advertisement used high-viewership television events to create initial conversation and even controversy. This dialogue, mixed with fast-moving social media platforms, continued to spread the message to as many people as possible, very quickly. The advertisement first aired during the 2017 Super Bowl, which was seen by over 110 million viewers, according to ESPN. While the audience members may or may not agree or enjoy the message, a little controversy is helpful for this type of advertisement. This initial buzz allowed the ad to spread more quickly over social media platforms, like TikTok and Instagram, where it was seen by exponentially more people than P&G could have reached through any one singular television event. The strategic combination of television and social media helped P&G reach as many people as possible. Eventually, it led to them winning an Emmy Award for their commentary on the racial state of our country. Now that we've established both the importance of reaching considerable viewers, and how P&G accomplished this, I want to dive in into the more profound message that the advertisement portrayed. Part of the reason this video was such a successful advertisement was the ability to appeal to both sides and work towards a common goal without explicitly blaming one group. For Black viewers, the video explicitly names the discrimination they experienced despite the implicit bias and nature of the prejudice. It creates a sense of connection. The I resonate with what you're feeling report is critical to appealing to Black viewers. By naming implicit racism, P&G opens the conversation on how to progress away from it and toward racial equality. Specifically, this compassion is shown in the video through depictions of N-word usage here. It's an ugly, nasty word, and you are going to hear it. Nothing I can do about that. But you are not going to let that word hurt you. It is backhanded compliments, as heard here. You are not pretty for a black woman. You are beautiful, period. Okay? Don't ever forget that. By naming these specific instances, P&G's ad is well-received and even endorsed by Black audiences. This ad also serves as an educational video for White viewers, to expose them to the discrimination they may be committing. First and foremost, for those explicitly committing acts of implicit racism, this advertisement calls out and reveals the unjust acts they are conducting. However, for the majority of the White community, the analogous acts do not coincide with intentional malice. Instead, they stem from deep-seated internal biases that manifest in actions fueled by preconceived notions. In this instance, P&G's advertisement helps White individuals understand what they are doing and how their actions adversely affect Black individuals and families, whether intentional or not. Overall, racial justice has come a long way. In theoretical legal contexts, Blacks have the same rights as everyone else. Equal living rights, equal opportunity to jobs, and other explicit policies have attempted to create a more racially and ethnically equal society in the United States. However, implicit biases still provide complete equality in practical and social contexts. Arrest statistics, access to education and healthcare, and civil-social situations all demonstrate the need for further work to improve racial justice. This advertisement aims to push social justice progress in the right direction by naming the current factors that hold us back as a country. P&G's The Talk and other similar initiatives are working toward this goal of equality. Still, conscious action by every individual is necessary to reach the goal of an equal American society. Thank you to everyone who listened, and I hope you guys enjoyed my podcast.