Advocate, Activate and Focus on the Truth
By Tiffany Warren. President and Founder, ADCOLOR; SVP, Chief Diversity Officer Omnicom Group
“Today is the day we march ourselves out of the margins we’ve been forced into. Because every one of us deserves respect. Every one of us deserves acceptance. And every one of us deserves to feel safe. Together, we are united in this quest for equality. And united, we are catalysts for a future that celebrates every one of us. Not in spite of what makes us different but because of what makes us unique.”—The 2018 ADCOLOR Manifesto
Welcome to the 12th Annual ADCOLOR Conference & Awards special section. This year, the stakes have never been higher. With so much confusion in the world, Team ADCOLOR knew instinctively that we were well placed to bring truth to the table. This year’s theme— “Moment of Truth”—is reflected in every aspect of this weekend: the conference, the activations, the awards and the hosts, Endeavor CMO Bozoma Saint John and actress/host Jeannie Mai of The Real. The ADCOLOR Manifesto created by our agency partner GSD&M gives us the strongest message yet that advocacy is at the core of who we are.
We have celebrated, inspired, motivated, educated and advocated. Now it’s time to activate. We chose honorees and nominees who have turned their moments of truth into actions that have changed the world. This year, our conference content highlights individual voices, but says loud and clear in one voice: “Truth matters.” Our speakers, presenters, honorees, nominees and futures have demonstrated the importance of truth through their work, their community outreach and their achievements.
Since 2007, 7,200 people have experienced The ADCOLOR Conference & Awards. We have amassed an online community of over 25,000 through our various social media platforms. We have honored 358 diverse professionals and companies as nominees and honorees and chosen 219 young professionals to be the Futures.
This year, we expect to welcome over 1,200 diversity champions and professionals of color. We will honor 8 incredible honorees and 27 remarkable nominees, and welcome 40 promising, new Futures. Their achievements and triumphs serve as a light in the darkness of the world.
In 2018, we continue to see the suppression of racial and gender equality and identity, and promotion of cultures and systems that support indifference and hatred. ADCOLOR created a new status quo by honoring, discussing and supporting those who rise up while reaching back to bring others along with them.
As our organization enters its thirteenth year, advocating and speaking out for the present and future of diversity and inclusion remains our greatest mission.
We have worked hard to create a standard of excellence that is felt throughout the creative industries. We will stand right alongside other organizations and diversity champions challenging our industries to create a truly equal playing field. The pain of inequality haunts those who experience it and are held back by it. I again challenge all of you to look within yourselves and your organizations and create the world you want to be a part of, like ADCOLOR has done. As always, just ADCOLOR and…activate.
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2018 ADCOLOR Honorees
Catalyst Award
Tarana Burke
Founder
#MeToo Movement
Tarana Burke said “Me too” over a decade before the hashtags started.
Back in 2006, the activist and advocate used the phrase as a way to find the right words to empathize with the countless young women of color who had disclosed their experiences of sexual abuse. Ever since, it has shaped her activism helping girls and women who have suffered sexual harassment, abuse and assault. As she told CNN: “On one side, it’s a bold declarative statement that ‘I’m not ashamed’ and ‘I’m not alone.’ On the other side, it’s a statement from survivor to survivor that says ‘I see you, I hear you, I understand you and I’m here for you or I get it.’”
Last year, Burke was among the activists called “the silence breakers” who were named Time’s Person of the Year. Today, she is senior director at Girls for Gender Equity.
Legend Award
Ann Mukherjee
Global CMO
SC Johnson
SC Johnson’s first-ever global CMO, Ann Mukherjee is all about authenticity … in her leadership and in her approach to marketing. It’s an approach that aligns with the CPG giant’s well-honed values of integrity and building trust with consumers. And it comes from a life journey that Mukherjee has openly described as a mix of tragic misfortune and great success.
“We are who we are because of our experiences,” the executive told a group at the University of Wisconsin School of Business in 2017. “We don’t have regrets. This notion of being unapologetic and saying what you really feel…is a philosophy I’ve had in life, and it’s a philosophy I’ve had as a marketer.”
Before joining SC Johnson in 2015, Mukherjee made her mark at PepsiCo, where, as president of global snacks and insights, she helped the Frito-Lay division build more vibrant brands through big-event platforms like the Super Bowl. Campaigns like Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” and Lays “Do Us a Flavor” were unique in their ability to both empower and delight consumers. No wonder one publication called her a “consumer whisperer.”
Esi Eggleston Bracey
EVP & COO, Beauty and Personal Care
Unilever
Few women have a bigger impact on how women see themselves than Esi Eggleston Bracey, who leads Unilever’s multi-billion dollar Personal Care portfolio, including brands like Dove, Degree, TRESemmé, Shea Moisture and Schmidt’s Naturals. And that requires a realistic approach to today’s multicultural consumers.
“America looks different than it did 20 years ago,” Bracey said in a recent interview with New York Magazine’s The Cut “As brand builders, it’s really important for us to make sure we’re showing reality in our beauty, not just that one percent of the world.
An energetic and dynamic leader known for creativity and out-of-the-box thinking, Bracey is consistently recognized for her ability to guide organizations through brand-building excellence, agility and operational discipline in light of competitive pressure and a rapidly-evolving marketplace. Before joining Unilever, she was president of Coty’s Global Consumer Beauty division and GM and global leader of P&G’s Covergirl and Max Factor brands.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Lisa Garcia Quiroz
SVP, Cultural Investments and Chief Diversity Officer
Time Warner
Back in 1996, when Lisa Garcia Quiroz started People en Espanol, few mainstream publishers thought about directly serving the Latino community. But Garcia seized the opportunity and created what would become the Spanish-language magazine with the largest readership in the U.S.
A publishing industry veteran—she was also founding editor of Time for Kids—Quiroz passed away earlier this year after a battle with pancreatic cancer. She spent her career at Time Inc. and Time Warner, ultimately becoming president of the Time Warner Foundation and Time Warner’s chief diversity officer. She also gave back, serving as board chairman of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. President Obama appointed her chairman of the Corporation for National and Community Service board of directors.
As Soledad O’Brien tweeted: “She was an advocate for women, for education, for Latinas, for the arts. She was a connector, a doer, a passionate person who loved Time Warner and saw possibility at every turn.”
Special Recognition
James Edmund Datri
Outgoing President & CEO
American Advertising Federation
Cofounder
Miller/Datri Entertainment
In his decade-long tenure heading the AAF, James Edmund Datri—who is stepping down from his post on October 10—has navigated the trade association from the depths of the 2008 financial crisis to new levels of success. Consider the transformation of the Advertising Hall of Fame event. It went from a luncheon to a gala dinner, quintupling its revenue and increasing its stature and attendance. He also added the President’s Award at the HoF, presented to luminaries including actors Robert De Niro and Michael J. Fox.
In addition to the AAF, Datri sits on the board of the Advertising Educational Foundation and The Ad Council; the advisory board of the Annapolis Film Festival; the artistic advisory board of San Francisco Boys Chorus; and formerly served on the board of The Washington Ballet, and was vice chair of the Harvard Law School Annual Fund. Along with advertising and media, his career has spanned politics and law. Next up? Entertainment. Along with his godson and cousin, he’s cofounded a next-generation studio that already has five award-winning short films in its catalog and just completed its first full-length feature film.
Advocate Award
Lydia Polgreen
Editor-in-Chief
HuffPost
Out Magazine put HuffPost editor-in-chief Lydia Polgreen on the cover of its “Storytellers” issue last year as one of four queer women changing the way we think and live. Her approach shows the impact of diversity and the inclusion of new voices on the media landscape and the ability to tell richer, more complex stories. “I’d love HuffPost to be the place where the real conversation is happening about who gets to define what it is to be American, and what the real America is. My goal is to be the place where that conversation is happening,” she said in the article.
Polgreen’s career is full of turns. She started off at Washington Monthly, had a few small paper reporting jobs and ended up in The New York Times trainee program aimed at adding diversity to the newsroom. That began a 15-year span at the Times, which included stints as South Africa bureau chief, chief of the West Africa bureau and leading an initiative to expand its audience outside the U.S. She received the George Polk Award in 2006 for her reporting on the carnage in Darfur, the 2008 Livingston Award for international reporting, and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
ADCOLOR/One Club Creative Award
AJ Hassan
VP, Executive Creative Director
R/GA Chicago
AJ Hassan’s creative work mixes empathy and empowerment to deliver a clear and impactful POV. Her resumé is full of award-winning, purpose-driven campaigns that have changed the way people think about gender and equality. Always #LikeAGirl challenged gender bias. Secret’s Mean Stinks took on bullying. #EqualDreams for Esurance advanced the Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage equality. And, most recently, LifeWTR’s “Art By a Woman” which imagines a world where half the world’s artwork—created by women—goes missing.
At R/GA, Hassan leads the campaign creative across all clients and new business efforts for Chicago to deliver holistic innovative thinking designed to help brands thrive in the connected age. She previously was a VP at Leo Burnett, where #LikeAGirl won an Emmy, 14 Cannes Lions and over 100 million views.
Shannon Washington
SVP, Creative Director
Deutsch
Shannon Washington is a creative force, a champion of young talent and a leader with a rich portfolio of top-level work. She joined Deutsch in Los Angeles earlier this year to help craft a new phase for H&R Block. After all, if you can’t be creative about taxes…
At Droga5 New York, she was creative director on CoverGirl and Chase, worked at Time Inc.’s INVNT on live and integrated media experiences and was a digital creative director at Grey New York focused on beauty and lifestyle. Washington has also actively contributed to industry diversity initiatives like Droga’s D5in10 Academy and Here Are All the Black People with The One Club for Creativity.
As she says in her bio: “The stories I tell in my work always tend to come back to something based on my life. And I have to do it that way, because if I didn’t no one would ever believe that life like this could happen for a girl like me.”
2018 ADCOLOR Nominees
The Ad Of The Year
The Talk
Procter & Gamble
BBDO New York, Egami Group
Part of the My Black Is Beautiful initiative, the spot takes on the harsh realities of being black in America by showing the discussions African-American parents must have with their children about the difficulties that come from racial bias.
Declaration Descendants
Ancestry
Droga5 New York
For July 4th, Ancestry’s genealogy specialists tracked down the descendants of the Declaration of Independence’s signers to recreate the famous John Turnbull painting. Instead of 56 white men, they become a diverse group that includes African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, East Asians and Filipinos.
Another Silent Night
United Nations’ CERF
VML
32 women from 17 countries—all of whom fled to the U.S. from a conflict area—share their stories of loss, struggle and survival, culminating in a version of the holiday carol that describes the pain and fear of being trapped in a conflict area, and the relief that comes from humanitarian aid.
LIFEWTR Open Gallery
PepsiCo
R/GA Chicago
51 percent of today’s visual artists are women, but their work makes up less than 5 percent of permanent collections. From a symbolic wall of empty frames, the campaign raised the visibility of women artists by featuring them on bottles and setting up a new gallery for women to showcase their art.
Universal Love
MGM Resorts
McCann New York
To celebrate LGBTQ love and same-sex marriage, the Las Vegas resort teamed up with top musical acts—Bob Dylan, St. Vincent, Kesha and others—to reimagine classic love songs as same-sex wedding tunes. It just takes swapping out “he” and “she” pronouns and pairing them in same-sex voice.
MVP (Most Valuable Partnership)
72andSunny & Da Vinci Schools
The agency and LA-based charter school network have partnered for years to provide better awareness of, and access to, creative careers for students. Over time, the partnership has grown to include lectures, curriculum consultations, tours, bootcamps for high school students and 13th-year internships and mentorships.
BBDO & Egami Group
Leading up to the 10-year anniversary of P&G’s visionary My Black Is Beautiful program, BBDO and Egami Group were engaged on relaunching the platform. The result: “The Talk,” a compelling 2-minute film that looks at how African-American parents prepare and protect their children for the difficulties of growing up black in America.
Rising Star
Morgan Hewitt
Client Solutions Manager
Facebook
Now based in Singapore where she’s launching new revenue streams for Facebook Southeast Asia, Hewitt has been recognized by Facebook leaders as a high-potential leader, representing the company at One Young World and launching the Facebook Social Entrepreneurship award.
Juwan Wedderburn
Strategist
72andSunny
Since joining 72andSunny in 2016, Wedderburn has gone from intern to leading strategist working on some of the largest and most challenging accounts. He has been a mentor and vocal advocate for creating an inclusive and welcoming culture at the agency and beyond.
Nayantara Dutta
Trends Researcher
Walter Thompson
Dutta’s trend reports and articles look to provide a more nuanced and multidimensional representation of Muslim women across cultures and how marketers can respect them. She was chosen as one of ten ColorComm fellows and looks to support fellow non-U.S. citizens in the industry.
Change Agent
Danielle Skeen
Senior Account Manager,
Midmarket & Strategic, Microsoft Advertising
Beyond her role in digital ad sales, Skeen has been a champion of diversity and inclusion in all her work, especially as co-chair of the Blacks at Microsoft (BAM) employee resource group. Her leadership turned its Black History Month program into a viral sensation across the entire company.
Elisha Greenwell
Brand Strategist
Facebook
To unite Oakland’s diverse community of black people and celebrate the black experience past, present and future, she created the Black Joy Parade. The February 2018 event—with Facebook as sponsor—welcomed over 14,000 people, three times more than expected
Abraham Asefaw
Founder & Director
The Pop Up Agency
.
As a cofounder of The Pop Up Agency, Asefaw is part of a new era of creativity, redefining the role and the way we tap into creativity in business. He believes in the power of creativity and that with the right processes, anyone can be creative and develop ideas, within a time frame too.
Rockstar
Jamilah Lemieux
VP, News and Men’s Programming
Interactive One
Lemieux is a leading millennial feminist thinker and new media maven. At iOne Digital, she helped spearhead the creation of CASSIUS, a progressive digital lifestyle platform powered by young, black content creators.
Eunique Jones Gibson
Founder
Because of Them We Can
Gibson’s 2013 “Because of Them We Can” campaign for Black History Month, using photos of children replicating African-American icons, went viral and still reaches millions
of people each month.
Ayiko Broyard
EVP, Client Services
Walton Isaacson
Talk about blockbuster campaigns. Broyard led the alignment of Lexus and Black Panther—including the creation of a Lexus Black Panther concept car—helping the auto brand become part of the world of Wakanda.
Innovator
Joshua Kissi
President and Cofounder
TONL & Street Etiquette
Kissi started TONL with business partner Karen Okonkwo to shake up stock photography, telling compelling visual stories with diverse subjects. His creative agency Street Etiquette has an impressive catalog of clients.
Rodney Williams
CEO and Cofounder
LISNR
A former P&G marketer turned much-honored entrepreneur, Williams cofounded LISNR, which uses proprietary technology to allow data to be transmitted by sound bandwidth.
Troy Pryor
Founder & CEO
Creative Cypher
Chicago-native Pryor founded Creative Cypher, a collective of content creators that have come together to champion diversity in the film industry by making it more accessible to independent artists. Its reach is now nationwide.
ADCOLOR In Tech
Jolawn Victor
Group Product Manager,
Accountant Segment, Intuit
Victor sets the vision and direction of one of Intuit’s most strategic products that enables accountants to help millions of taxpayers file their returns confidently. She gives her time and talents to diversity recruiting efforts.
Marlon Nichols
Cofounder & Managing Partner
Cross Culture Ventures
Nichols is changing the face of venture capital, an industry renowned for its lack of diversity. Three years in, Cross Culture Ventures has a portfolio that leads in diversity and cultural investing.
CP McBee
Senior Sales Director
Microsoft Advertising
As leader of Microsoft Advertising’s D&I program embRACE, McBee has turned the organization into a thriving, passionate community with 400-plus members focusing on open, honest conversations about race.
