Will Social Marketing Fight for Black Lives? An Open Letter to the Field

Abstract

2020 will likely be known as the year of reckoning for the United States and beyond, as anti-Black racism has moved to the center of national consciousness and a deluge of demands and pledges to confront and dismantle pervasive cultures of racism have been released. This watershed moment to address and act against racial injustice is rightfully gaining momentum. Spurred by the massive uprisings and protests in response to the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and too many others, numerous corporations have responded to these demands with some urgency— first by issuing public statements against racism and in support of Black Lives Matter, and then by making large donations to organizations promoting equity, turning Juneteenth into a company holiday, placing a moratorium on facial recognition sales to police departments, and finally acknowledging and ending the use of brand mascots with racist origins. While these actions are surely steps in the right direction, they only scratch at the surface of the long-standing problems of racism and inequality that have historically plagued our society. Indeed, Citigroup estimates that racism against Black Americans has cost the U.S. economy $16 trillion over the past 20 years (Adedayo, 2020). Dismantling the entrenched structural inequalities caused by racism will depend on multiple approaches, disciplines and paths. It will depend on you, the individual working in the field of social marketing. Social marketing is a practice and framework that lends insight to and supports the development of interventions that change people’s behaviors in socially beneficial ways. While it may not be as wellfunded as commercial marketing, through creativity, analytics and strategy, social marketing is engaged to capture attention, spread awareness and influence behavior in the same way; thus it can be a robust and effective tool in social change. It has been known to influence people to give up deadly habits like smoking and driving drunk; reduce dependency on scarce environmental resources; and plan and save for retirement—all areas where law and education were not sufficient on their own to transform beliefs, knowledge and behavior. It would appear then, that social marketing would be an instrument that is also used to address racial equity. However, social marketing has been relatively quiet in this domain. There are certainly social marketing initiatives focused on addressing health and social challenges that contribute to racial inequality. However, race has been underutilized as a