Coming soon: Black History Month Profiles 2023

In February 2019, derek walker began his Black History Month profile series for the US industry. I was blown away by the simplicity, directness and effectiveness of the initiative. Completely inspired, I wrote him and asked if I could follow in his footsteps, in Canada.?

Derek agreed, responding with honesty and humour, “I'm sorry to hear that Canada mirrors us in anything right now…”

He was right. I didn’t realize how much I would have to struggle against an industry rife with systemic racism to do this simple thing. I'm not saying this to diss the industry. I love working in Canadian advertising.

But our industry had successfully invisibilized BIPOC folks; it was so bad that even we couldn’t see each other.? We didn’t know where our role models were, which young up-and-comer to take note of, which stalwart had been shining right in front of us forever.?

It was hard breaking through at first; I only managed to do 15 profiles in 2019. But the floodgates opened with that first series. Since then, I have been able to post 28 profiles every February (29 in 2020), one per day, to spotlight a Black advertising or marketing professional in Canada. And when a group of us founded POCAM in early 2020 it stopped being hard to find people.?

Throughout, too, I came to rely on a growing band of white allies who quietly, consistently and committedly, reposted and amplified the series; in the end, the profiles were seen by thousands of people.

A few months ago, it dawned on me that this series is about to enter its 5th year.?

It may have stopped being hard to find people but it is still very hard work. It requires tremendous effort, commitment and, dare I say it, love. Brother derek walker knows what I’m talking about.

So, for this year’s profiles, I am absolutely delighted to say that several of my fellow POCAM SteerCo members have joined forces with me. Each of us will write a few profiles; that means each of us will spotlight these fine people in our own networks, and that’s far more visibility for Black talent than I could ever swing on my own.?

To top it all, as they did last year, our outstanding allies, David Brown and Chris Powell , will publish each profile every day in Campaign Canada , so everyone in our industry will get to see and celebrate these amazing people.

I can’t wait.

#dei #BHM2023 #blackpresence