Not-so-breaking news: Advertising has a racial-diversity problem, with around 5.8% of the workforce identifying as Black, according to 2020 data from the 4As. The better news? Agencies and organizations are trying to do something about it by making it easier for them to pursue marketing careers.

After the protests of 2020 that followed the murder of George Floyd, programs like the BLAC internship program and Breaking Media were created to help bring more diversity into advertising.

• Both in their second year, they’re offering the chance for people at various levels to learn about the industry and, hopefully, get jobs.

Big picture: Nicolet Gatewood, executive director of BLAC, told us this is just the beginning. Of the 5.8% of Black employees in the advertising industry, 68% are entry level or administrative according to the 4As. “This is not okay. And so, we maintain that an internship program is a great opportunity for interns. It is not the diversity solve for our agencies—they need to address adequate representation at all levels, inclusive of leadership.”

Creating a doorway

Gatewood said she was 35 before she broke into advertising, thanks to the help of a personal connection.

“The advertising industry fuels itself on referrals, right? And sometimes nepotism. So if you’re in an industry that is predominantly white, who have you had professional experiences with? Other white people,” she said. “It’s just a self-fulfilling prophecy and problem here, and we’re aiming to break that up.”

When creating the application requirements, Gatewood said it was important that the BLAC program remove as many barriers to entry as possible.

• “Our application criteria is no résumé. No one cares if you’ve gone to college, nobody cares if you’re 40 and you’re trying to enter this industry, or if you’re 21 and have only ever worked not in the industry,” she said.
• Applicants submit a two-minute video showcasing their creativity. From there, they go through interviews and, if selected, go on to work with one of 20 participating agencies, like Barker or Upshot.
• The interns convene throughout the 12-week program to work together on projects, hear from speakers, and, at the end, attend a job fair.

“We think we have an obligation to both our interns, which is to provide opportunity where opportunity is needed, to open a door. And the other commitment that we’re making is to the industry. And that’s by way of our agencies,” Gatewood said. She and program founder Toni Lee expect agencies to commit to nonprofit 600 & Rising’s 12-step plan and pay interns a minimum of $15 per hour.

By the numbers: Last year, Lee said that 23 of the 32 BLAC interns landed full-time jobs at the end of the program, though she clarified that some of the nine who didn’t still needed to finish school. This year, the goal is to match or exceed those numbers.

Read more about BLAC here, as well as Vox’s Breaking Media program with UM.—KH

Unlike Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, influencers haven’t made their way to space (yet). But they are boarding private planes—complete with champagne brunches, hangover-recovery IV drips, and other photo ops rivaling those fake private jet sets.

And, like most influencer antics, it’s all happening on another company’s dime: Willa, a payment and invoice company specializing in getting creators and influencers paid faster, recently announced Willa Air, an “airline” exclusively for the influencer set.

• It, of course, isn’t an airline by traditional definition. The company, which was started in March 2020, is chartering a private plane with Monarch Air Group (and decking it out in Willa branding) to fly a select group of 12 creators from LA to Coachella for free.
• For now, it’s just those two flights. But Willa’s co-founder and CMO, Aron Levin, told Marketing Brew that if all goes well, Willa Air will continue for other influencer-magnet events like Fashion Week.

“Coachella is the influencer Olympics,” Levin told Marketing Brew. According to Levin, $30 million will exchange hands between creators and brands during the festival, and Willa estimates more than 6,000 influencers will attend.

Sure, Willa Air might not technically be an airline. But Willa hopes the stunt will help it stand out in the increasingly crowded creator economy. Click here to read more about it.—PB

TikTok can help sell books and maybe even cryptocurrencies. Lately, some therapists have been using the app to talk about mental health (with some scoring brand partnerships with companies like Better Help and Cerebral along the way), writes Morning Brew’s Amanda Hoover in a story about therapy going viral.

Yes, they (hopefully) take their job seriously, but it’s still social media, so aesthetics rule:

• “Therapists sit in well-lit, decorated rooms, with their makeup and hair styled, or they put their content on curated, millennial-pink cards when posting to Instagram,” writes Hoover.
• The trend has gotten so big that the American Psychological Association released guidelines for social media use last year.
• One therapist Hoover interviewed said he’s turned down partnership offers because dishing out mental health advice and then plugging a product feels “inauthentic.”

It’s what Hoover calls a “new ethical frontier” as therapists grapple with creating content for an audience that might find one-on-one therapy appointments financially out of reach.

“Content can’t be so specific that it violates an individual patient’s confidentiality or addresses a follower too directly, but by speaking too vaguely, therapists become more like horoscope writers,” Hoover says.

Read her full story here.—RB

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Fancy math: Advertising doesn’t need to happen in a black box. Here are three questions to ask about marketing mix and attribution modeling.

IRS: ’Tis the season to audit your social media strategy.

LinkedIn: It’s not just for congratulating your college roommate on their new job—here are 37 stats about the platform.

Looking for more? Check out Marketing Brew’s latest article: Why Ruggable is going all in on Bachelor Nation influencers, sponsored by Impact.*

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