Critical race theory and public relations

Diversity has become a buzz word in many companies’ mission statements. However, most public relations firms do not have a diverse board of executives. In fact, 94 percent of public relations managers are white (Waymer & Brown, 2018). Critical race theorists have examined the underrepresentation of people of color in public relations and concluded that more diverse firms create more diverse content. Therefore, the public relations industry needs to move towards a more diverse workplace by encouraging people of color to pursue careers and promotions in public relations. People of color are more likely to purchase from brands that adequately represent them than brands that do not (Bristor et al., 1995).

Public relations began in the early twentieth century, although it was not formally named yet. Public relations has been defined in many different ways because the definition changes as the industry adapts to changing technology. Past definitions centered on press relationships and organization engagement. Now, public relations is defined as a “strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics,” according to the Public Relations Society of America (2020). Several logistical factors can affect diversity in public relations. A public relations campaign can expand to include a broader, more diverse public or a smaller niche depending on its aims. Companies can have an in-house public relations team that only focuses on their brand or they can choose to work with a firm. There are specific benefits to each. In-house public relations allows the department to be more intimately aware of the company, while a firm brings a fresh set of eyes to examine the company before making suggestions. An outside firm can be hired for a short time to accomplish a goal, while an in-house department is usually a permanent addition.

Critical race theory (CRT) began as a critique of the color blindness approach in critical legal studies. CRT was then applied to education and scholarship research (Cabrera, 2018). Delgado and Stefancic (2001) stated the CRT movement is a collection of activists and academics who want to study race, racism and power. There are five central tenets of CRT: intercentricity of race and racism, challenge to the status quo, commitment to social justice, centrality of experiential knowledge and interdisciplinary perspective. These tenets usually focus on education and the legal system, but the theory can be applied to advertisements and public relations campaigns. CRT also focuses on the fact that race is not biological and natural; it is a social construct.

Public relations managers are rarely people of color. Some of the underrepresentation starts in undergraduate classrooms. In a study of undergraduate public relations students, non-white students agreed that their race played a significant role in their education. In 2018, only 3.3 percent of managers were Hispanic, and 2.7 percent were African Americans (Waymer & Brown, 2018). Logan (2011) combines several different theories, including CRT, to explain the “white leader prototype.” Logan argues that historically public relations leaders have been white and they do not typically use their position of power to help people of color in their firm succeed. He states that the prototype was inevitable because historically, people of color were barred or discouraged from entering the field until the late 1970s. A lack of representation in leadership would also lead to a lack of representation in public relations campaigns.

In 1962, the New York Telephone Company created an unprecedented advertisement (Ad Age, 2003). The advertisement featured a well-dressed African American entering one of their telephone booths. It was the first time an African American was seen in a general circulation advertisement. Since then, people of color have been featured in many advertisements or public relations campaigns. However, people of color are underrepresented compared to white people. The mainstream public relations field tends to avoid racial issues by pretending race is no longer an issue, considering race only from a business perspective and portraying race in an unfeeling manner (Xifra &McKie, 2011). It is essential to represent everyone authentically through the creation of tactics, advertisements and public engagement. Some brands do not want to challenge the status quo, but they are starting to because millennials, whose buying power is growing, are coming to expect adequate representation, especially in advertisements (Ad Age, 2019). The public relations industry has begun to embrace diverse staffs, not because they love diversity, but because they need it to represent races in their campaigns accurately. According to the Nielsen report, “black buying power” has risen to 1.3 trillion dollars, which means the need for adequate representation is increasing too.

Several large companies have begun to include a more diverse group of people in their advertisements to appeal to underrepresented people of color and gain their buying power. The millennials also expect adequate representation of minority groups, and their buying power is projected to be more than the baby boomers’ in the next ten years (Fry, 2020). Beauty brands specifically have incorporated many different races into their public relations campaign as part of the body-positive movement. Dove Beauty’s public relations team created the hashtag “#beautybias,” along with a series of advertisements centering around the way people judge others based on their looks. The advertisements featured multiple races without ever mentioning race as a #beautybias factor. The campaign focused on hair, height, weight and age. Many of the posts using the hashtag did concentrate on race, especially African American women posting about their natural hair.

Car companies have also examined their use of race in commercials; Toyota created four different commercials, each appealing to a different race (Maheshwari, 2017). Each advertisement used web cookies to target the corresponding racial group on social media. Toyota attempted to appeal to Asian Americans, African Americans, Hispanics and “mainstream transcultural Americans” by creating advertisements with adequate representation and ensuring they saw it. Proctor & Gamble took a similar approach, but they included multiple races in one advertisement that ended with “#loveoverbias” for their followers to use to interact on social media (USA Today Sports, 2017).

Non-profit organizations also incorporate diversity into their public relations campaigns to give a voice to underrepresented groups. The American Civil Liberties Union created the campaign “Driving while black or brown” to spread awareness about racial profiling and generate donations (ACLU, 2000). The campaign won a Silver Anvil Award for its research, planning, execution and evaluation. The ACLU said that without contributions, the campaign would never have been a possibility.

Every campaign that uses racial representation is not always successful. An essential aspect of these campaigns is their timing. In 2014 after several white officer-involved shootings resulted in the deaths of several African American men, Starbucks launched its “#RaceTogether” campaign (Abitbol et al., 2018). About 66 percent of people believe that companies should have a position on social issues, but because it is what they think, not because it is a hot topic. The #RaceTogether campaign consisted mostly of having the baristas write #RaceTogether on the cups. They were not given training for when people asked questions, and the campaign quickly gained national attention. Starbucks closed 8,000 locations on May 29, 2019, for racial education training and killed the campaign in response to the backlash.

Critical race theory is important to the public relations industry since their target markets include people of different races. However, it is not enough to only represent them in the campaign. The Starbucks campaign failed due to the timing of the campaign. Other campaigns failed because their representation of people of color was not flattering. Successful diverse campaigns included accurate, flattering depictions. A diverse team creates more successful diverse campaigns because they understand how people of color interact with the world. Adequate representation will generate revenue, but not if it is a stereotype or ingenuine.

References

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