#RedefineBlack

Client: P&G
Company: DoSomething.org
Project Role: Senior creative strategist

The Opportunity:

P&G partnered with DoSomething.org as part of its ongoing “My Black is Beautiful” effort, seeking a campaign to empower young people and help create a positive perception of blackness and spotlight biases.

DoSomething members took to Twitter to challenge the dictionary companies about their definitions and invite them to make a more inclusive change.

The Solution:

The word “black” doesn’t have a value—it’s a color. Yet when visiting sites like Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster.com, they use words like “dirty,” “wicked,” and “evil” in the definition. Those words create unconscious associations in people, reinforcing the “bad is black” concept. We set out to #RedefineBlack.

I identified an opportunity: dictionary brands had recently turned their social media accounts into socially progressive (occasionally trolling) responsive reply guys. Since they were actively reacting to recent events, they would presumably be sensitive to social media pressure.

To effect change, we rallied DoSomething members on Twitter and Instagram to challenge the dictionary brands, encouraging the dictionaries to use more inclusive definitions. We also built a petition for young people to support and share widely.

The Outcome:

Thousands of young people participated in the campaign, actively posting on social media and signing the petition. Press coverage quickly followed with sites like CNBC, Essence, and Because of Them, We Can covering the campaign.

Within days of the campaign’s launch, we saw actual, measurable change: Dictionary.com announced it would amend the definitions and add a capitalized version of “Black” to represent people and be more respectful. In its announcement, Dictionary.com specifically cited the #RedefineBlack campaign as the precipitating factor in making the updates.

Not only did young people help make positive changes in the world—making the dictionary itself more inclusive and less judgmental—DoSomething showed young people the measurable impact they have using their collective power.