Are Corporate Marketers and their Ad Agencies Suffering from White Guilt?

Will they ever be cured?

Will we ever again see a television commercial that doesn’t have a black man or woman or a mixed race couple as the lead characters?

Are corporate marketing departments and their ad agencies suffering from a terminal case of “white guilt”? Are they aware that 75.3% of the U.S. population, and therefore their core marketing demo, is white (Only 13.7% are black.)

What could possibly be the benefit of poking a finger in the eye of their core demographic? Isn’t it the job of corporate marketers to deliver the corporation’s marketing message to their core demographic in the most effective and profitable manner possible? Aren’t they hired to increase the bottom line?

Or is there something else going on?

It looks like these marketers’ - corporate marketing departments and their ad agencies - primary objective is so-called “equity”. In other words, featuring a disproportionate number/percentage of black actors in their commercials as some sort of “soft reparations”

They are at odds with their investors, the institutions and individuals who buy stock in their company to earn a profit on their investment. And yet, the corporate marketing departments and ad agencies working on their behalf have a much different agenda: promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in furtherance of the “social” element of the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) objectives being pushed by the Left.

Yes, it is true that since the last national election, many corporations - especially BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street - the promoters of such nonsense at the expense of corporate profitability - have gotten the message. It seems, however, that their marketing departments haven’t “read the memo” they most certainly received.

Will they ever “get the memo” or, like the last election, will they simply have to be replaced? Do they not realize they are alienating the largest and most important part of their customer base, not to mention their largest investor base as well? It is clear there is still a battle going on within many corporations.

I personally believe the battle is between senior executives that are trying to eliminate DEI and ESG mandates in an effort to appease the investor class, and the politically correct ideologues in their creative departments. It will be interesting to see who wins. I put my money on the executives and corporate boards. They have a mandate from their investors to meet revenue and profit targets which translate to stock growth. They also happen to be “the boss”.

There is also the specter of a man named Trump in the background driving a common sense agenda that is entirely at odds with the ridiculous woke virus that has infected every aspect of American life, including the television commercials we must endure.

I strongly suggest to the corporate marketing departments and their ad agencies that they find a cure for their “white guilt”, and do it soon.

The Liberator