Allyship & Action, an anti-bias platform and event series, has launched an interactive microsite called “Welcome to Advertising.”
The site shares real, honest stories about work culture from the point of view of people of color in the advertising industry. The site starts by documenting a collection of anonymous racist encounters experienced by BIPOC in the ad industry, then interactively layers on annotations and analyses of what went wrong and what steps should have been taken to intervene.
The project is led by Pilar McQuirter and Scarlett Tanous of the Allyship Army, the creative pod behind Allyship & Action.
“Welcome To Advertising was born out of Allyship & Actions’ culture of continuous improvement, even when it pushes us out of our comfort zone. The team had a very passionate discussion about their experience working in the advertising industry. The end result is the first volume of the microsite. The goal is to cause a ripple effect in how both agencies and clients can support their POC talent,” said McQuirter in a statement.
For each story included on the microsite, Allyship & Action worked with psychologist and Critical Race Theory expert, Marc Wilson, Ph.D to provide annotations pulling out the racist behaviors in a way that’s constructive, enlightening, and actionable.
“Combining my background in advertising with my expertise in business psychology, I have been able to provide insight-based recommendations on how minorities in homogenized workplace cultures can have a work experience rooted in respect and cultural awareness,” said Wilson in a statement.
By documenting these stories, Welcome to Advertising hopes to enable the advertising industry to reframe diversity equity and inclusion training or practices in the workplace. Through the revealing of the racism experienced by BIPOC talent and providing actionable steps to help eradicate this type of behavior in the workplace, the hope is that the talent will be able to thrive.
The team plans to develop additional volumes in the coming months with hopes of the content to become a survival guide for everyone, helping people to understand their role and privilege in the workplace while celebrating the resilience of this community and celebrating their triumphs.
Allyship & Action (A&A) was founded by Palette Group co-founders Nate Nichols and Steffi Behringer, with partners Aimee Brodbeck and Bennett D. Bennett. In addition, A&A hosts an annual State of Equity summit.