More than 90 advertising, media, and entertainment professionals gathered on Wednesday, Oct. 19 in Manhattan for the 2022 Advancing Diversity Hall of Honors Induction Reception. The evening recognized this year’s 11 distinct companies dedicated to diversity in the industry.
“Each year, we thoughtfully recognize organizations whose dedicated commitment to diversity has resulted in measurable success, proven to be good for their businesses, and been amplified as best practices for the industry,” said Jack Myers, Founder of MediaVillage and AdvancingDiversity.org.
The Advancing Diversity Hall of Honors was created by the collective advertising supported media community in 2018 to recognize organizations in the advertising industry for their outstanding contributions to creating a more diverse and equitable media industry. The 2022 class of inductees are Comcast Advertising, GroupM, IPG Mediabrands, IRTS Foundation, Mastercard, NBCUniversal, R/GA, Savannah State University, The One Club for Creativity, The Writers Lab, and UWG.
“It’s an honor to be recognized amongst such a distinguished group of like-minded companies who are committed to progressing the mission of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” said Lukeisha Paul, Head of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion, GroupM. “We are proud to be a leader and advocate for our industry to reflect a much better representation of the world that we live in.”
Media Village and AdvancingDiversity.org’s 2nd annual Advancing Diversity Week, which took place on Oct.17-20, focused on Black talent outreach. This year’s main objective included collecting 2,500 resumes from eager, qualified candidates interested in the advertising, media, and entertainment industries and connecting them to professionals in the industry. Right now, Black people make up less than 5% of the professionals in the advertising industry.
“We recognize and are responding to the continued dramatic underrepresentation of Black employees in media and advertising professions, while representation of other traditionally underserved groups has increased and approached national averages,” commented Myers.
Beyond Advancing Diversity Week, MediaVillage will continue to collect resumes as a part of its commitment to attracting more Black talent to the advertising, media, and entertainment industries. The free Resume Submission Portal remains open for eager, qualified candidates who can share their interests and resumes with a host of companies at week.advancingdiversity.org.
Additionally, the week’s programming featuring over 40 industry leaders’ insights remains available at MediaVillage.com.
