Is Diversity and Inclusion actually important?

Haley Bender - hb476416@ohio.edu

The media world has been dominated by white people since its inception. From newsroom interns to advertising executives, diversity has always lacked, and continues to be an issue even in 2019.

As communication professionals, our mission is to tell important stories. How can we tell stories if we don't have all of the perspectives or knowledge? Many companies have come to realize in recent years that you can't in fact, properly tell stories to the world when you are not representing the people you are telling the story too.  So many PR crises could have been avoided if the people behind the ad campaign or messaging were diverse.


PR issues that probably could have been avoided with a more diverse staff:

Photo from: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/pepsi-commercial-kendall-jenner-reaction

Pepsi and Kendall Jenner

This infamous ad from 2017 provoked endless ridicule from the Black Lives Matter movement. In the ad, Kendall Jenner walks among a standoff between protesters and police. The model gives a police officer a can of Pepsi, and the crowd breaks into cheers of joy. The ad was meant to represent unity and peace in a time of police brutality, but instead made people even more angry. This ad was pulled from all media and the company lost millions of dollars. Additionally, the PR damage was intense. If Pepsi would have had a more diverse staff of people who actually understood the Black Lives Matter movement, maybe this ad would have never been produced.


H&M 

In January of 2018, fast-fashion company H&M faced major criticism for selling a children's shirt that said "Coolest Monkey in the Jungle" worn on the website by a black child model. Several celebrities publicly cut ties with the company, and thousands of people posted their complaints online. The shirt was offense, and played into stereotypes and racist language. Similar to Pepsi, H&M lost money, celebrity endorsements and loyal customers from this incident. Also similar to Pepsi, the company could have avoided the entire situation if the staff behind the merchandizing and web teams were more diverse.


Dove 

The 2017 ad from Dove shows a black woman removing a brown shirt and changing into a white woman wearing a white shirt. This ad, along with many ads before it, insinuates that black women are dirty and white women are clean. This obviously caused a lot of discussion and controversy around the internet and social media. Many wondered how an ad like this could make it through so many reviews without anyone speaking up. The answer, most likely, is not that the creative teams at Dove are necessarily racists, but that they most likely are just not diverse and thus did not even see that this would be an issue.

So is diversity and inclusion actually important?

Yes.

Diversity and inclusion is extremely important in PR, media, and in every industry. Our mission as journalists and communication professionals is to serve the public. How can we do that if we are not properly representing the public? Countless PR issues like the ones above could have been avoided if a more diverse group had been in the room when decisions were made.