Hey, agencies: Your owners are biased
Oberland is defining change beyond bias. Over the next year, it says, it's hiring outside auditors to examine its environmental footprint, mental health support, diversity and inclusion procedures, wage parity and harassment policies, and it plans to publicly post the results and any remedies. Oberland is a benefit corporation, a legal status granted by 33 states to for-profit companies that have a positive social impact, and was recently certified as a B Corporation, a designation issued by the nonprofit B Lab indicating that a company has exceeded high standards for sustainability, accountability and transparency.
More videos on topics like sex discrimination and harassment are in the works. Like the first two, they'll each include an influencer. The racism spot, for example, ends with a message from Keni Thacker, diversity advocate and event technology specialist at J. Walter Thompson. Cindy Gallop, former BBH chair and founder of IfWeRanTheWorld, appears at the end of the spot on ageism.
"As a 58-year-old woman, this is especially dear to my heart," says Gallop. "It's holding a mirror up to the behavior that happens in a way that absolutely forces recognition of it. Hopefully, it will make people think twice when they feel themselves falling into that standard response."