A Racial Justice Org Is Using Billboards to Promote Activism

A year after the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests across the globe, one racial justice organization is using out-of-home advertising to encourage people to continuing fighting against systemic racism. Color of Change partnered with Outfront Media to produce 65 billboards across nine major cities in the U.S. that feature the bottom half of a person’s face with the words “Action speaks” on a piece of tape covering their mouth and a link to a site called Until Justice Is Real. When people visit the site, they can either donate to a fund to help stop police violence against Black people, learn about the organization’s various campaigns or even start their own movements or petitions if there’s a specific cause they don’t see listed. “There’s a lot of talk happening and we wanted to just give people an outlet to actually find their power and find tangible things that they can do to impact the change they want to see in the world,” Amity Paye, Color of Change’s interim CMO, told Adweek. How Procter & Gamble Plans to ‘Widen the Screen’ for Black Creators and Media Companies The Color of Change and Outfront Media partnership came at a time when Outfront had been reevaluating the way it can stand behind causes. Jodi Senese, Outfront’s CMO, recalled the company asking itself, “What if we channel some of this energy into a few very important organizations or causes and put more heft behind it?” Jodi Senese, Outfront’s CMO, said the company donates approximately more than $10 million to different organizations each year, and when Outfront opened up this conversation to employees, racial injustice was one of the top issues they wanted it to focus on. Out-of-home advertising might not seem like the instinctual choice for a racial justice organization that has a digital-first approach to activism, Paye says being able to reach people in various cities means “making sure that people understand that you can make change where you are,” especially when fighting against racial injustice can often feel like a huge undertaking. “Building strong communities means really just finding people where they are and also helping them find actions that will better those communities,” she said. Senese agrees with Paye and added that the billboards can create “a certain moment where that impact really becomes indelible in that person’s mind and have the ability to drive them online.” Within the first two weeks of the billboard’s presence, Senese said that the ads got millions of impressions, and even got a boost from the digital side of things with an additional 2 million social shares. According to Paye, “the ads are actually driving action” as Color of Change has seen site traffic, petitions and campaigns increase within that time frame. Color of Change also happens to be celebrating its 15th anniversary this year and as the organization continues its mission of making “a more human and less hostile world for Black people in America,” it also wants companies who stood behind Black Lives Matter last summer and made commitments to fight against racial injustice to step up and do the work. “Action speaks, not only for individuals, but also for companies that are looking at this,” Paye said.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

A Racial Justice Organization Is Using Billboards to Continue Fighting Against Racism

Color of Change is promoting its 'Until Justice Is Real' site across 9 U.S. cities

Tiffany Moustakas

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Tiffany Moustakas