The Talk
Procter & Gamble (My Black Is Beautiful)2017
The Talk is a 2017 two-minute film, cut for national television for Procter & Gamble, created by BBDO New York, with Egami Consulting Group.
The line
#TalkAboutBias
Why it works
Across several decades, Black parents sit their children down for a conversation that most white families never have to hold: how to carry themselves in a world that will judge them by race. In the present-day scene a mother explains to her teenage daughter, who insists she is a careful driver, that being pulled over is not about getting a ticket but about coming home. No P&G product appears. Made by BBDO New York with the multicultural consultancy Egami for P&G's My Black Is Beautiful platform, it was released online in July 2017 ahead of national television, and drew both praise and accusations of being anti-police. It is studied as a landmark in a mass-market advertiser confronting racial bias directly, built from lived experience and accepting the backlash as part of the cost. Directed by Malik Vitthal, it won the Film Grand Prix at Cannes Lions in 2018, a One Show Gold Pencil and that year's Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Commercial.
Techniques
- Purpose and cause With no product on screen, ties the My Black Is Beautiful platform to confronting racial bias and invites the conversation through its hashtag.
- Pathos A mother's warning that being pulled over is about coming home, not a ticket, makes the fear Black parents carry painfully felt.
- Storytelling Moves across several decades of parents sitting their children down, building to a present-day scene between a mother and her teenage daughter.
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