Despite his very public stance, the company has more customers coming in than it’s losing. “People drift away, and then they come back,” said Penzey. “What can I say? We have really good ground cumin.”
Looking for a brand that completely missed both the social justice and authenticity mark? Look no further than Pepsi’s abysmal ad campaign. In it, the American model, socialite, and media personality Kendall Jenner hands a can of the sugar-filled soda pop to a police officer during what appears to be the world’s happiest protest. The totally tone-deaf ad, pulled the same day it aired, was rightly excoriated for trivializing the deaths of Black people at the hands of police.
The fight against racial injustice in the U.S. exploded into nation-wide protests and social unrest following last year’s death of George Floyd — under the unrelenting knee of a white police officer in Minnesota for nine minutes and 29 seconds.
Proving to be both a flash point in the U.S. and a spark for similar movements and sympathy marches around the world, major global brands — many, such as Amazon, Netflix, and Nike, with a Latin American presence — took a stand, backed by meaningful action against systemic racism, as reported in this AdAge blog that tracks how brands respond to racial injustice.
The global stance of these brands found resonance in other markets, such as Brazil. The country has a much larger black population (54% of the total) than that of the United States, and it witnesses cases of police violence or neglect far more frequently than Americans. Ironically, cases similar to George Floyd's or Breonna Taylor's do not receive the same attention in the country from companies, authorities, or even the media.
For example, Floyd’s murder took place exactly a week after the death of the 14-year-old black boy João Pedro Mattos, during a police operation on Salgueiro’s community, in São Gonçalo, in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro. According to the official autopsy of João Pedro’s body and witnesses, he was hit by a bullet in the back after police raided his home allegedly in pursuit of a drug dealer. However, most of the demonstrations by artists, experts, and celebrities about the João Pedro case only happened in the wake of the George Floyd case.
Addressing diversity, equity and inclusion at tech startups
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), an international financial services organization headquartered in Santa Clara, California, also has interests in Latin America — including the Latam Growth Lending Fund it launched last year with other investors.
It’s no secret that big tech has a big diversity problem. An integral part of the tech-startup ecosystem for more than 20 years, SVB has had a front-row seat to the industry’s (and its own) shortcomings. According to Andy Tsao, the bank’s managing director and head of global gateway business, the company began examining diversity and inclusion within the organization looking for ways to improve. “It’s been a corporate priority to increase diversity and inclusion for the past five or more years,” said Tsao.
Answering questions about your DEI policies isn’t always easy or comfortable. No one knows this better than Cristina Junqueira, the co-founder and CEO of Brazil-based Nubank, Latin America’s largest neobank. The company, we should note, is a client of Silicon Valley Bank.
During a TV interview last year, Junqueira ignited a social-media firestorm when she said Nubank couldn’t lower its job-requirement standards to include more Blacks in leadership roles. Since then, Nubank has publicly apologized and vowed to improve its racial diversity. It also launched Semente Preta, a BRL 1 million investment fund for startups founded or led by Black entrepreneurs, created a partnership with the Instituto Identidades do Brasil to promote racial equality, and will invest BRL 20 million to train 1,250 Black programmers.
Whether this is a long-term commitment to enact real change within the organization remains to be seen. We requested an interview with Nubank to discuss its plans and provided them several weeks to comment, but the company declined our invitation.
Wanting to know more about how companies and brands are dealing with social justice issues? Read the full article on LABS.
*** |
|
