Little Sikh On the Prairie

As mentioned in past blog posts, advertising is a field that I am currently exploring in my career. The beauty of advertising is that there is both an art and a science aspect to it. There is a message that has to be conveyed in a way that not only grabs your attention, but provides intention. 

2017 has been quite an interesting year (and it is only March); Someone changed the Hollywood sign to Hollyweed (lulz) , Beyoncé announced she’s expecting twins, and Donald J. Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States of America.
Now, this isn’t a post about President Trump because I think we’ve all had enough of that….However, there has been an increase in diversity focused advertising post election results. One of the reasons why Trump has been such a hot topic over the past election year is due to his comments on people of colour and different faiths. In addition to this, his elected Vice President Mike Pence has been outspoken on his negative view on abortion and LGBTQ rights.

So what did the advertising world do? MAKE AD’S OF COURSE!
About a month ago, there was something called Superbowl LI where the patriots won or something? and Gisele Bündchen’s husband got to hold a trophy? I don’t really know. But did you see those commercials?!

 There has been an influx of diversity focused campaigns as of late. But, is it because diversity is the main topic of conversation these days or is the ad world clapping back at the negative media coverage?
Advertising is mostly about making businesses grow whether it be through awareness, or just simply reminding people. By taking a diversity stance, it shows that businesses aren’t just concrete buildings that sell things, and that people aren’t just numbers on a ledger – It shows that they are integral and there is depth to their business.

In case you have everything DVR’d and missed all the latest wicked commercials, i’ll remind you:

(Note* all pictures have links because I’m nice like that)

AirBnB – #WeAccept 

Nike – Equality – Wieden+Kennedy

Coca-Cola – #AmericaIsBeautiful – Wieden+Kennedy

Love has no labels – AdCouncil – R/GA

All of these campaign’s focus on one thing which is that Diversity is Empowering. 

Personally, I’m happy that campaigns are taking a diversity route and being the antidote to the negative headlines we hear every single day. However, it is starting to become a advertising trend and diluting the work of the frontrunners. Advertising is more engaging than it has every been with touch points popping up everywhere. However, if we want to get a message across then it has to keep meaning and not become clutter. There has to be a strategy that can not only create a campaign but back up the campaign when its questioned.

P.S it is campaign’s like these above that make me excited to enter into the Ad world and start my career (the right way this time)

-Georgina