The 115-Year-Old NAACP Has Gained New Relevance by Acting Like a Brand

Earlier this month, The Washington Post reported that a spate of big-name brands including Tesla, DoorDash, Home Depot, Wayfair and Zoom had made “steep cuts” in executive teams committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. Citing data from Revelio Labs, the paper noted that DEI jobs had fallen 8% so far this year, having tumbled 5% in 2023. It’s a grimly familiar theme to those watching staffing trends—and an especially salient one now, as Black History Month comes to a close. In June of last year, Time reported that corporate layoffs were “disproportionately affecting minority workers” and “white guys have been getting the C-suite jobs.” As HR consultant Natalie Norfus wrote in HR Daily Advisor last summer, “We are three years from the upsurge in awareness of the need to more firmly commit to DEI initiatives following the murder of George Floyd, and many people are frustrated by the lack of meaningful progress.” But if you ask Aba Blankson about the apparent backsliding on corporate diversity initiatives, she’ll give you a different, more nuanced take. “One of the things that was been frustrating for me is articles that come out, or folks that say, ‘How come nothing has changed yet?’” Blankson told ADWEEK. She pointed out that America’s fraught racial history goes back over 400 years (the first enslaved people arrived in the colony of Virginia in 1619), so it’s unrealistic to think that habitude like that can change in three years. “Historically, the United States has this history of taking two steps forward—then there’s the backlash. And we’re seeing that now,” Blankson said. “[But] there’s the famous Martin Luther King quote that says that the moral arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice. It is this notion that while in this moment there is pushback, the next push forward will take us that much further.” Aba Blankson has been CMO of the NAACP since 2017. Think of yourself as a brand Blankson has the credentials to make assessments like that, and not just because she’s an MBA with two decades of international experience in communications and marketing. Since 2017, Blankson has served as CMO of the 115-year-old NAACP, which the Library of Congress credits as “America’s oldest and largest civil rights organization.” If there’s any institution with an irreproachable perspective on the state of diversity in corporate America, it’s this one. Yet the NAACP hasn't been content to rest on those laurels. Under the leadership of Blankson and NAACP president Derrick Johnson, who brought her aboard six years ago, the organization has done more than just observe and assess corporate diversity efforts; the two executives have maneuvered the association into the position of influencing them as well. “[We] challenge corporations [by] holding up that mirror—providing support where we need to, providing accountability,” Blankson said. “Sometimes we play the role publicly. Sometimes we play it in a way that helps push all of us forward.” The NAACP has always been a boots-on-the-ground institution. Founded as the the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909 by sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois and investigative journalist Ida B. Wells, the NAACP organized the first mass protests over lynching and, starting in the 1930s, battled segregation under the legal direction of Thurgood Marshall, who later became a Supreme Court justice. The NAACP’s sway within the corporate world is a more recent development, however, and one enabled by a shift in the way the organization conducts its affairs. To both speak to younger generations and gain entry to the C-suites of America, “we needed to rethink our whole communications, marketing and branding infrastructure,” Blankson said. “In today’s day and age, you can’t just be a legacy organization—you have to think of yourself as a brand.” The art of being influential How can a venerable, intellectual organization learn to act like a brand? Shortly after taking her post, Blankson conducted what she called a “reputational analysis” to get a hard, numeric read on the NAACP’s “reach and share of voice.” She also made additional hires to better focus on marketing and digital communications, increasing its visibility and influence with a wider segment of the population. Blankson’s most important contributions may also be the most visible ones. She’s made a point of getting the NAACP out of its offices and into the business realm to foster interactions with professionals in the marketing, media and creative fields. For example, the NAACP now has a presence at events including SXSW, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and the Sundance Film Festival where, last month, it facilitated a discussion on how broader representation in Hollywood is pivotal to box office returns. These functions have afforded the group new forums for its messaging and also a chance to meet and build relationships with professionals on their home turfs. “There's a whole community of young Black creatives that are in that space that were pleasantly surprised to see NAACP,” Blankson said. “And since then, we've engaged in various conversations, particularly around advertising, and how CMOs are navigating some of these waters relative to diversity, equity and inclusion.” Town halls before they were a thing Blankson also likes to point out that, long before Covid-19 and Zoom gave rise to the corporate "town hall” meeting, the NAACP was already hosting town halls as another means of increasing its visibility. A 2022 town hall confronted the issue of student loan debt, for instance. An unvarnished discussion of the Black community’s concerns about the Covid vaccine anchored a 2021 session. The 2020 town hall featuring CEO Johnson in conversation with former senator and presidential candidate Mitt Romney (R—Utah) took place only 65 days after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. “With the tragic death of George Floyd and the other events which have occurred over the past several weeks, I think Americans on both sides of the aisle are saying 'This continues to be a real problem,’” Romey told Johnson as nearly 2,900 audience members listened in. “We still have not fulfilled the promise that America [should] offer to everybody." By positioning itself an interlocutor in challenging conversations like this one, the NAACP has not only achieved broader visibility, it's distinguishing itself for a willingness to maintain a rational dialogue at a time when America’s political camps are increasingly unwilling to speak to each other. “We may disagree on particular points or particular approaches,” Blankson said, “but [we] can have a conversation—that’s the thing that’s missing right now.” And while a unified corporate commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion may also be missing right now, Blankson retains the hope—albeit a cautious one—that progress will inevitably result. “I hope corporations give themselves grace to weather this period, this moment, so they can push through,” she said.