After a year of protests and calls for radical change in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, a collective of Atlanta marketing and advertising professionals is calling on the industry to put its money where they’ve spent the last year saying their heart is.
Recently launched, The A Pledge is made up of 10 Atlanta-based industry leaders (including members like Melissa Proctor, Atlanta Hawks CMO, and Kyle Stapleton, senior manager of culture and experience at WarnerMedia Studios) who are challenging creative agencies across the city to commit to diversifying their teams and ultimately better reflect the city.
It works on the basis of accountability, according to Darryl Cobbin, a board member of The A Pledge and managing partner at Brand Positioning Doctors consulting firm. Each pledgee is expected to create their own company-specific diversity, equity and inclusion strategies and report their internal demographic data.