Marketing Briefing: Why DE&I becoming a flash point is part of ‘politicization of everything’

It’s a strange moment for corporate America and, in turn, for the marketers who are the stewards of their brands. A little over four years ago, companies responded to the tragedy of George Floyd’s murder and the protests that followed by updating their DE&I policies and telling the world those policies. Some seemed sincere in their updates. Others were more performative in nature. Since then, marketers have faced brand boycotts, dealt with backlashes to “woke” marketing efforts and activist investors, becoming part of the culture war.

The companies that are recommitting to their DE&I policies are the ones that have embedded DE&I into their business strategies and the DNA of their brands making it more difficult to seemingly reverse course, said marketers, consultants and agency execs.

Those that have reversed their policies had not truly woven them into the fabric of their companies and instead treated it like an “ironed on patch” that can be ripped off, explained Janis Middleton, chief inclusion officer at sister ad agencies Trade School and 22squared.

Despite companies’ various DE&I stances, it’s an issue that’s not likely to go away. “People are expecting companies to have this social, moral compass that did not necessarily exist 10 or 15 years ago,” said Ezinne Okoro, global chief inclusion and culture strategy officer at VML. “Now it’s business necessity meets social responsibility.” 

That’s not an easy task for marketers to manage but one that will likely continue to be the case for the foreseeable future as DE&I policies continue to be a flash point. “Unfortunately, part of this is just the politicization of everything,” said Matt Egan, managing director of strategy at brand consultancy Siegel+Gale, adding that he doesn’t expect this fervor to go away anytime soon. “It’s very hard to be for everyone. Being inclusive is now political and there’s a backlash to that. This is the world we’re living in.” 

There seems to be a willful misunderstanding of the term DE&I and what those DE&I policies do, explained agency execs, consultants and inclusion execs, who noted that a rebranding for DE&I is necessary. While some companies will publicly say they are dismantling policies, others may be changing the language they use out of a need to correct a misunderstanding of what DE&I is and what its perception has become. 

“At the core of the impassioned fervor surrounding DE&I as it relates to business success is weaponized language with no bearing on reality,” said Patrick Bennett, chief creative officer at Jack Morton, in an email. “It’s become the latest inductee into the Demonized Term Hall of Fame — like ‘global warming.’” 

Bennett isn’t alone in his assessment that the words have become a problem. “In 2020, these were keywords; today, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging are trigger words,” said Middleton. “… When we think about representation, mass representation, we always want this mass reach but we also need to understand representation matters.” 

That representation is always more authentic when it comes from brands with diverse workforces at their companies as well as the agencies that they work with, noted consultants, agency execs and marketers. Even if DE&I is under a microscope, marketers shouldn’t walk away from it as future generations are more diverse than the ones before them and ignoring that will hurt brands in the long-term. 

“The term DE&I does not change the reality that businesses face as they strive to grow in today’s United States,” said Bennett. “The most significant reality confronting these businesses is that the largest, and soon to be the most powerful, generation this country has ever seen is also the most racially and ethnically diverse in U.S. history — with nearly half of Gen Z being people of color.” 

Bennett continued: “This means, your pool of talented workers is becoming more diverse and facing challenges in conforming to the historical monocultures within organizations. It also means your most important consumers are increasingly diverse and demand products, messages, and experiences that reflect their lived experiences.”

3 Questions with Jonathan Kolozsvary, global head of small business at Visa Commercial Solutions

Why is Visa interested in expanding the small business designation to content creators?

As we all evolve our business models, who we serve and kind of the partners in the ecosystem, one of the things that we consistently monitor is not just the composition of the small business pie but how the pie is growing. The creator class [is] growing at this exponential rate.

This month, Visa rolled out a series with creators. How are you working with them?

What we’re trying to do is highlight and sponsor that journey both at the beginning of what is this passion you might have that you think could be a hobby, but something that turns into much more leads you to be this entrepreneur in this age of digital commerce. Some of that is predicated on what we’ve seen in some transactional data of where trends are headed, whether it’s health and fitness, culinary, travel, but then identifying with maybe originally consumers looking to take their passion into small business.

What are some of the biggest challenges you hear from creators in managing their businesses as you shape products and services around them?

One is cash flow management. You are as good as the content you’re creating, the followership you have, the frequency in which you’re releasing it, etc. Managing that cash flow with it, what is sometimes cyclical [and] seasonal, can be really difficult. We see that for small businesses generally as well. The second is really around this fact of payout speed, [like] how quickly can you get paid by your provider, some of the social platforms. The third, which really kind of bookends these pain points we see, is mainly around access to working capital — and just the fact that when you face those first two challenges, who can you go to to be able to have that working line of credit, that working capital to weather the proverbial storm? — Antoinette Siu

By the numbers

Even with an extended deadline, the TikTok ban still looms in the coming months and marketers will once again have to reconsider ad spend on the channel. Still, as visual storytelling remains on the rise for users, so too will marketers increase their investment, according to a recent report on the 2025 State of Marketing and Trends from HubSpot, a customer relationship management (CRM) platform. See below for key findings: 

• Despite claims that Facebook is “dead”, 58% of marketers still leverage the platform as part of their marketing strategy, and 40% state it’s one of the top 3 drivers of ROI. 
• X and Threads are neck and neck — with 68% of marketers increasing investment into X, and 59% in Threads. 
• 30% of respondents reported that YouTube would see an increased investment in 2025, in comparison to Instagram (29%) and TikTok (28%). — Kimeko McCoy

Quote of the week

“The misinformation, disinformation and controversial topics and social fear has just added a whole other element to [inclusion and exclusion lists].”

— Jennifer Kohl, chief media officer at ad agency VML, when asked about brand safety amid Trump’s return to the White House.

What we’ve covered

• ROAS vs. incrementality: Scrutiny around ad spend grows in booming retail media space
• WTF are AI agents?
• Marketing in limbo: the long shadow of TikTok’s turbulence