‘Just don’t say DEI’: Brands sit out advertising around Black History Month, other heritage months this year

This year, Black History Month brand campaigns in February were quieter than normal. Amidst the diversity, equity and inclusion reckoning, expect Women’s History Month in March and Pride Month in June to strike similar tones. 

That’s according to three marketers Digiday spoke with for this story who said brand clients have either paused marketing around days geared toward honoring historically marginalized communities or tweaked language away from anything that could be deemed DEI. 

As more companies retool their commitments to DEI, multicultural marketing around holidays and heritage months have come into question. 

“It’s almost like, ‘just don’t say DEI. Whatever you do, don’t say DEI,’” said Gary Williams Jr., chief creative officer and co-founder at Creative Theory ad agency.

The agency has maintained its roster of clients. However, the ripple efforts of DEI dismantling have reached Creative Theory. One client in particular, a tech company that Williams Jr. declined to name, has seemingly pulled back efforts around multicultural marketing moments. In the past, Williams Jr. said, the agency produced the tech company’s campaigns for those holidays. This year, at least by press time, the company has made no plans for those months.

“You think about that’s Black History Month, that’s Women’s History Month, we did Hispanic Heritage Month, we did Juneteenth. So those are four [heritage months] right there that are no longer,” he said, referring to the tech company’s tapered initiatives.

With Black History Month in the rearview and Women’s History Month is well underway, it’s unclear if brands will come back to the table in time for Pride Month in June.

Creative Theory isn’t alone. Another agency spokesperson, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said their own agency is seeing a similar trend, in which the influx of clients looking to launch multicultural campaigns has dwindled. In 2023, the agency saw anywhere from 20 to 30 requests for those cultural month moments. Last year, there were just an estimated 15. “This year, we’ve seen a real slowdown and pause,” said the agency spokesperson, without specifying campaign requests for 2025.

The marketing and communications agency works with state and city governments as clients, many of which have concerns about funding overall with the President Donald Trump administration’s significant cuts to government funding.

As far as marketers are concerned, it’s a mix of fear of public backlash and potential lawsuits as well as economic uncertainty causing advertisers to hold dollars closer to the chest. Call it a “risk mitigation trend”, said Steve Gorski, head of strategy at Forsman & Bodenfors NY, a creative collective and advertising agency. 

Brands have a fear, Gorski added, of finding themselves caught in the crosshairs of the so-called cultural wars, which has thus led to a downtrend of those targeted cultural holiday campaigns. The head of strategy said anecdotally that client interest in Black History Month, Women’s History Month and related multicultural holiday moments have decreased by about half from 2023 through this year.

“We still see companies standing behind [DEI],” he said, “but we’ve seen less people asking for ad campaigns in this climate, we’ll call it, still showing that they value diversity, equity and inclusion, and still support these communities.” Some companies, he added, are retooling their approach, highlighting female founders and companies stories rather than speaking directly to a historically marginalized community.

And perhaps for good reason. It wasn’t so long ago that brands like Adidas, Miller Lite, and most notably, Bud Light, served as cautionary tales for marketers after facing public backlash to what was deemed “woke” advertising with themes of inclusivity. 

That trend continues even into this year. This week alone, creative agency Notorious111 said a healthcare provider client got pushback to a sponsored Meta ad for language around women’s health, encouraging screenings for breast care.

“It was not controversial,” said Katie Hooper, co-founder and CEO of Notorious111, “and what we started to see pretty quickly was we started to receive what I would call social trolls coming at us, essentially [saying], ‘Why do you have to make everything into a DEI initiative?’

President Trump’s executive order aimed at dismantling government DEI has likely been a catalyst for some companies that have walked back their own diversity initiatives. However, the writing was on the wall even before Trump walked into the Oval Office. 

Last July, farm equipment manufacturer John Deere announced changes to its DEI policy, which seems to have spurred a domino effect for others like Ford Motor Co, Molson Coors, Walmart, McDonald’s, Target and the list goes on. It’s a stark contrast to the commitments and marketing efforts that date back to 2020 and 2021, on the heels of the murder of George Floyd.

“We knew those commitments weren’t going to last. It’s just the nature of the business,” Williams Jr. said. “I don’t think we realized how abrupt the stop would be.”

Notably, while some companies are going quiet for these cultural moments, others have continued efforts. For example, Rare Beauty, a makeup brand founded by Selena Gomez, launched its “I See You” campaign in recognition of Black History Month. Meanwhile, Code.org, a nonprofit that offers free computer science lessons and resources for K-1 students recently launched a spot showing young women using computer science and artificial intelligence in time for International Women’s Day. 

While there have indeed been shifts in brands’ approach to diverse communities, both on an organizational and consumer-facing level, there’s still a commitment to honoring multicultural moments. 

In an emailed statement to Digiday, Danisha Lomax, head of client inclusivity and impact at Digitas, said, “The data continues to reinforce what we’ve always known: that investing in diverse communities is the right thing to do and a powerful driver of brand loyalty and growth.”

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‘Just don’t say DEI’: Brands sit out advertising around Black History Month, other heritage months this year

This year, Black History Month brand campaigns were quieter than normal. Amidst the diversity, equity and inclusion reckoning, expect Women’s History Month and Pride Month to strike similar tones.