Register by Jan 13 to save on passes and connect with marketers from Uber, Bose and more
Amid the fear left in the wake of this fall’s terrorism attacks in Paris and California, some retailers have been caught racially profiling shoppers. Zara apologized after a video uploaded a day after the Paris attacks showed one of its stores there barring a Muslim woman wearing a hijab from entering. In Los Angeles, following the San Bernardino shooting, a Muslim woman complained that she was profiled after inquiring at a local Dick’s Sporting Goods about hunting ammo.
Some retailers that have deliberately made inclusiveness part of their brands, though. H&M featured a hijab-wearing model in a major ad campaign back in September, before the terror attacks. Net-a-Porter ran a capsule collection in June honoring Ramadan. Even Abercrombie & Fitch is trying to mend its ways — the store refused to hire a hijab-wearing woman in 2008, and the Supreme Court ruled in June against the company. Since then, Abercrombie has created a diversity and inclusion team.
More in Marketing
Inside the brand and agency scramble for first-party data in the AI era
Brands are moving faster to own first-party data as AI and privacy changes alter the digital advertising landscape.
Walmart Connect takes a play out of the Amazon playbook to make agentic AI the next battleground in retail media
The next retail media war is between Walmart Connect’s Sparky and Amazon’s Rufus, driven by agentic AI and first-party data.
What does media spend look like for 2026? It could be worse — and it might be
Forecasts for 2026 media spend range from 6.6% on the lower end to over 10% but the primary beneficiaries will be commerce, social and search.