People holding signs take part in a Stop Asian Hate rally on April 3 in Oakland.
Xinhua News Agency/Getty Images
In the wake of recent attacks against Asian Americans, including the Atlanta-area spa shootings that left eight people dead, corporations have increasingly sought to speak out against anti-Asian racism.
Just last week, Bank of America expanded its $1 billion program to advance racial equality, pledging $1.25 billion and including the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. And last month, GoFundMe—creator of the now viral #StopAsianHate hashtag—launched the AAPI Community Fund, raising more than $5 million from brands such as YouTube, Airbnb and Panda Express along with other donations from more than 44,500 people. Monetary commitments have also been made to various organizations by Etsy ($500,000), Nike ($500,000) and Peloton ($100,000).
“Staying quiet on big social and political issues is no longer an option,” says Diego Scotti, CMO of Verizon, which pledged $10 million to accelerating social justice for the Asian community and issued a statement denouncing hate and discrimination. “Silence can be viewed as complicity.”
Such demonstrations of corporate activism aren’t new and, in many ways, mirror companies’ responses to the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests that followed last summer.
“The movement for racial justice that the death of George Floyd catapulted back into the forefront of the national discussion provided an opportunity for companies to reflect on what matters,” says Musa Tariq, CMO of GoFundMe. “It reminded us that when marketers use their brands as a platform for good, their impact can be incredible.”
But Connie Chung Joe, CEO of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles, the nation’s largest AAPI civil rights and legal services provider, says AAPI issues haven’t been a focus of these efforts until recently. As important as it is to support those of Asian descent in this moment, she says leaders should use this time to create holistic, long-term commitments to drive change.
“This is a unique moment to see Asian Americans in the spotlight and being profiled and supported in this manner,” she says. “What we can recognize and acknowledge is that Black Lives Matter really did a lot to show that we can’t address systemic racism and things like anti-Blackness unless we all as a society talk about it.”
“It’s been a disservice to both the industry and the communities by bucketing everything as diversity, as a catch-all,” notes Steven Wolfe Pereira, cofounder and CEO of Encantos, and a vocal advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion priorities among marketers. “You’re now seeing the unbundling of diversity. Not all communities are the same.”
This has been top of mind for Asian American marketing chiefs, who, says Terminix CMO Alex Ho, have been in close touch in recent weeks to support each other and share ideas about how to fight injustices and foster dialogues about race.
“There are a lot of people now who are doing the hard work to speak up,” Ho says. “The simplest thing as a call to action is to have a conversation with a colleague or with a friend or anyone who is of Asian experience, the same as we encourage people to do that with Black Lives Matter. Seek empathy, seek some understanding, know that this is an experience that is not isolated and that these are human beings. Anybody can do that.”
This is especially important for marketers to remember, as their brands can’t afford to stay silent. According to a report released last summer by communications firm Porter Novelli, 64% of Americans believe it’s no longer acceptable for businesses to be silent about social justice issues. Some 57% think companies need to do more to address racism in their branding, while 54% say they’d be less likely to support a brand if they didn’t see themselves represented in its marketing.
“One of our core values at Peloton is to operate with a bias for action,” says Dara Treseder, head of marketing at Peloton. “When we saw the hate experienced by the Asian American community, we knew we had to do something.”
A person walks past a 'Stop Asian Hate' mural by Dragon76 in Chinatown on March 29, 2021, in New York City. The installation was commissioned by East Village Walls in honor of a year of that has seen a rise in hate crimes toward Asian Americans.
Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images
While many executives point out that standing up for the AAPI community is the morally right thing to do, they also say it’s good business. That’s also clear from data looking at the overall buying power of the AAPI consumers. A 2020 report from Nielsen found that the Asian American consumer market totaled $1.2 trillion last year and could reach $1.6 trillion by 2024. The report found that Asian American households usually spend more than the national average on things like food (+29%), apparel (+67%) and new cars (+37).
Suzy An, a vice president at Porter Novelli and leader of the company’s justice, equity, diversity and inclusion division, says companies need to address the feeling of invisibility that many in the AAPI community feel. “We’re not a monolith, but that’s how we’re treated in these times because it’s just easier,” An says. “We just need to be aware and be educated in that sense that we’re not a monolith. There is diversity in communities, and as long as you acknowledge that, that’s the most important piece.”
Aba Blankson, chief marketing and communications officer for the NAACP, says companies have increasingly reached out to the civil rights organization seeking guidance on how to respond to the attacks. For those doing so for the first time, she says acknowledging past silence is a good first step. And the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and its Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing recently released a statement condemning the violence in Atlanta and sharing six points of action for marketers.
“The recent demonstration of hate and violence against the Asian community reminds us all that we must all become active proponents of change,” Bob Liodice, CEO of ANA, tells Forbes. “Together we must unite and activate brands and all ecosystem partners to ensure the safety, security and well-being of the global community.”
Marketers must also acknowledge that the tragedy in Atlanta was just the latest in the AAPI community, says Marc Pritchard, global chief brand officer of Procter & Gamble. Pritchard—who has long spoken out against racism and stereotypes in advertising—notes that companies “really need to use the power of our reach, voices and money to change the system.”
To that end, Pritchard says P&G is developing a film, to be released in May, that “is going to spark conversations about bias and racism and the things that our Asian brothers and sisters are facing.” Such content, he says, creates “conversations, and when you create conversations, then people have a greater amount of understanding, which leads to empathy and then action.”
But it’s not always the highly produced content that makes the greatest impact. In fact, some of the most meaningful messages have come from individuals. Kyle Wong, founder and CEO of content marketing startup Pixlee, has seen such stories in his platform’s user-generated content, pointing to the now viral video of an elderly Asian woman who, after being attacked on the streets of San Francisco, cried out at her assailant. Though many viewers couldn’t understand what she was saying, he says, they could still hear and relate to the pain in her voice.
"There are certain elements around authentic content that just can’t be reproduced from a top-down PSA message that comes from a brand,” Wong says. “The speed and velocity and the volume, the rawness of it, are just elements, and even the point of view of it. It’s hard to capture that from a directive perspective.”
Agencies can do their part by collaborating with marketers, says Singleton Beato, global chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at McCann Worldgroup, “to ensure that inclusive marketing is a core part of the overall marketing strategy and media mix” and “that brand messages are meaningful and culturally attuned, sensitive and resonant.”
The bottom line: Marketers for whom societal and cultural involvement are de rigueur—not out of character or out of sync with their current narratives—will be met with greater trust and credibility when they raise their voices.
“This is not a marketing moment for you and your company,” says Everette Taylor, CMO of Artsy. “This is genuinely about doing the right thing. A lot of brands miss the mark because they see it as an opportunity to take advantage of a moment.”