we are a nation divided that’s what they
tell us right this chasm between us but
what they don’t tell you what doesn’t
make the news is this
we carry each other forward no matter
who we are
or what we believe or where we come from
we’ve had the privilege to carry a
century of humanity
lovers fighters leaders
but maybe what we carry isn’t just
people it’s an idea
that well we’re not the same we can be
one
[Music]
is the willingness to dare so let’s have
a conversation about culture I believe
that culture is everything and in
everything we can find culture and we
every single one of us sitting here in
this room today has the power to
influence culture in ways we don’t often
realize we are the gatekeepers of
culture because you see today culture
isn’t only found in the grand rooms of
the Met or in the halls of Lincoln
Center or deep in the National Archives
culture is everywhere and in everyone
yes it’s art and music and fashion and
architecture but it’s also culinary or
parenting or gardening or tech or travel
or even the coffee that we drink or the
watch that we wear on our wrist pretty
much any industry that you can think of
has an underlying culture with it now
the reason why culture is so important
to us is because it gives us a sense of
fulfillment and acceptance it feeds our
curiosities and the more that we know
about it the more that we are open to
others in our society so what if we were
to take it a step further and what if
the brands and businesses we let into
our worlds are held to the same standard
of authentic fulfillment that culture
gives us and what if in turn those
brands are rewarded with profits and
loyalty for advancing culture and our
hyper-connected society today we’ve been
giving the access to information and
news more than ever before and we’re
seeing a shift in balance as to who
controls cultural conversations we no
longer simply accept whatever message a
brand wants to dictate to us about who
we are we the gatekeepers sitting here
today have a power to influence
brands more than ever before let me give
you an example about what I mean by
telling you a story about the little boy
that you see on screen
this little boy grew up in Liberty City
Miami which has a population
predominantly made up of
african-americans and Latinos one of the
worst one of the highest crime rates in
the States and in in a median household
income of about $22,000
this little boy grew up without a father
his parents separated when they were
young when he was young because the
father thought the little boy was in his
and his mother struggled with addiction
so another woman had to take the little
boy in and help raise them as best she
could
that little boy went on to attend Miami
northwestern senior high school which
was by far one of the worst high schools
in the state it consistently received a
D or an F in academic performance now
based on everything that I’m telling you
this little boy is probably the last
person you’d expect to influence culture
but somehow he finds a way to overcome
all the Loews challenges and makes it to
college where he realizes that he has a
really really good eye for film and in
fact after college he leaves the state
of Florida and makes a break for
Hollywood now where the story gets
really remarkable is in what happens
next to this little boy through mutual
friends he’s connected to another writer
who also grew up in Liberty City and was
in the process of writing an
autobiography about his own upbringing
and that autobiography resonated so
deeply with this little boy that he
decided to turn it into a movie that
movie called moonlight went on to win
the Oscar for Best Picture at this
year’s Academy Awards if you haven’t
guessed it by now that little boy is
writer and director Barry Jenkins it’s
amazing to me that that little boy with
such a travel troubling background and
upbringing could go on to affect culture
the way that he did and that’s obvious
to all of us because he spoke
to us so beautifully and so
authentically but if you look at if you
dig a little deeper you’d find that a
business was also a winner
you see I’m sure that the company a 24
which was behind the production of
moonlight is not complaining about the
fact that a movie with a 1.5 million
dollar production budget went on to
gross over 65 million dollars worldwide
that’s a pretty nice return on
investment and it was all driven by a
unique desire to speak to culture with
authenticity now it should be obvious
that culture drives the bottom line and
we again the gatekeepers sitting in this
room today drive culture but that
cultural relevance is the secret sauce
that big brands are constantly looking
to cook up and in our hyper connected
society of today we no longer simply
accept whatever message of brand wants
to tell us we have the power to
influence brands I’ve seen this ship up
close and personal
I spent a better part of the last five
years working with a incredibly talented
group of communicators at Cadillac and
our challenge was to introduce this
iconic brand to a new generation of
consumers and what we found very early
on was that if we wanted to be relevant
everything we did to communicate our
values needed to come from a place of
authenticity and credibility and along
the way I had a bit of a realization
myself and because you see the customer
that Cadillac
looked to make a connection with sounded
a lot like me that customer came from a
metropolitan environment has a diverse
background so you don’t know if he is
black or white or Latino or another
racial makeup millennial entering his
prime years of bout buying power could
be single could be married to be gay to
be heterosexual
values individuality and believes that
tomorrow will be better than today just
like a lot of us sitting here today so I
thought to myself well if I’m the target
I can use my diversity of thought and my
diversity of background to help this
iconic brand win and along the way I no
longer view that our our customer as our
target but more so as my peer and just
like Barry Jenkins
I used my unique experiences and
backgrounds to build a cultural
connection with others but you would be
surprised how many brands miss the mark
when looking to influence us when
looking to build a cultural connection
with us they just simply don’t
understand our culture prime example
Pepsi
how many of you guys remember the
backlash that Pepsi received earlier
this year for that ad with kendall
Jenner now we don’t need to get into the
specifics and I’m sure that the team
behind the ad were well-intentioned but
clearly they missed the mark when they
believe that a can of soda could turn
the culture of activism and make it look
like Coachella and Pepsi is not the only
one how many of you guys have seen this
ad from Nivea to promote a new line of
clear deodorant I guess no one caught
the racial undertones but to make it
even worse this ad was targeted at
customers in the Middle East and what
about United Airlines with their
customer service disaster earlier this
year an argument could be made that they
got so caught up in their own internal
red tape that they lost sight of the
most basic culture of human decency and
empathy for others now there’s no
blanket strategy about how brands can
communicate the culture authentically
but there are some things that we can
learn from the way that we interact as
people every day that can serve as
guidance number one listen interacting
with others requires two-way dialogue
you’ve got you have to learn about what
is of importance to the community that
you want to to be accepted by and you
don’t you can’t learn how to interact if
you don’t know what to say
number two make impossible things
possible look to engage the community
that you want to be accepted by by
adding value it’ll be much easier for
that community to accept you if you’re
not only speaking their language but in
abling something to happen
number three people first everything
else second now look this one is a hard
one because they requires giving us
giving up a bit of control but we know
when we are being taken advantage of
we reject those that do so and number
four don’t hijack culture look make no
mistake every single one of us in this
room we are all cultural appropriators
but are we also appreciative
there’s a difference cultures requires
cultivation and if you simply hijack and
appropriate you lose credibility now if
you think about it we apply these four
basic principles in our everyday lives
about everything that we’re passionate
about we listen we engage we cultivate
we respect and I’ve learned that if we
take these four principles and apply
them in business we can leave a much
more meaningful mark on our society just
like Barry Jenkins did just like
Cadillac is looking to do so the point
is culture is us and we can as the
gatekeepers we cannot allow ourselves to
be hijacked appropriated and bankrupted
we work too hard
to curate every aspect of our lives to
make sure that we always have a sense of
fulfillment we should be able to hold
the brands and businesses we let into
our lives to the same standards thank
you
[Applause]
you
tell us right this chasm between us but
what they don’t tell you what doesn’t
make the news is this
we carry each other forward no matter
who we are
or what we believe or where we come from
we’ve had the privilege to carry a
century of humanity
lovers fighters leaders
but maybe what we carry isn’t just
people it’s an idea
that well we’re not the same we can be
one
[Music]
is the willingness to dare so let’s have
a conversation about culture I believe
that culture is everything and in
everything we can find culture and we
every single one of us sitting here in
this room today has the power to
influence culture in ways we don’t often
realize we are the gatekeepers of
culture because you see today culture
isn’t only found in the grand rooms of
the Met or in the halls of Lincoln
Center or deep in the National Archives
culture is everywhere and in everyone
yes it’s art and music and fashion and
architecture but it’s also culinary or
parenting or gardening or tech or travel
or even the coffee that we drink or the
watch that we wear on our wrist pretty
much any industry that you can think of
has an underlying culture with it now
the reason why culture is so important
to us is because it gives us a sense of
fulfillment and acceptance it feeds our
curiosities and the more that we know
about it the more that we are open to
others in our society so what if we were
to take it a step further and what if
the brands and businesses we let into
our worlds are held to the same standard
of authentic fulfillment that culture
gives us and what if in turn those
brands are rewarded with profits and
loyalty for advancing culture and our
hyper-connected society today we’ve been
giving the access to information and
news more than ever before and we’re
seeing a shift in balance as to who
controls cultural conversations we no
longer simply accept whatever message a
brand wants to dictate to us about who
we are we the gatekeepers sitting here
today have a power to influence
brands more than ever before let me give
you an example about what I mean by
telling you a story about the little boy
that you see on screen
this little boy grew up in Liberty City
Miami which has a population
predominantly made up of
african-americans and Latinos one of the
worst one of the highest crime rates in
the States and in in a median household
income of about $22,000
this little boy grew up without a father
his parents separated when they were
young when he was young because the
father thought the little boy was in his
and his mother struggled with addiction
so another woman had to take the little
boy in and help raise them as best she
could
that little boy went on to attend Miami
northwestern senior high school which
was by far one of the worst high schools
in the state it consistently received a
D or an F in academic performance now
based on everything that I’m telling you
this little boy is probably the last
person you’d expect to influence culture
but somehow he finds a way to overcome
all the Loews challenges and makes it to
college where he realizes that he has a
really really good eye for film and in
fact after college he leaves the state
of Florida and makes a break for
Hollywood now where the story gets
really remarkable is in what happens
next to this little boy through mutual
friends he’s connected to another writer
who also grew up in Liberty City and was
in the process of writing an
autobiography about his own upbringing
and that autobiography resonated so
deeply with this little boy that he
decided to turn it into a movie that
movie called moonlight went on to win
the Oscar for Best Picture at this
year’s Academy Awards if you haven’t
guessed it by now that little boy is
writer and director Barry Jenkins it’s
amazing to me that that little boy with
such a travel troubling background and
upbringing could go on to affect culture
the way that he did and that’s obvious
to all of us because he spoke
to us so beautifully and so
authentically but if you look at if you
dig a little deeper you’d find that a
business was also a winner
you see I’m sure that the company a 24
which was behind the production of
moonlight is not complaining about the
fact that a movie with a 1.5 million
dollar production budget went on to
gross over 65 million dollars worldwide
that’s a pretty nice return on
investment and it was all driven by a
unique desire to speak to culture with
authenticity now it should be obvious
that culture drives the bottom line and
we again the gatekeepers sitting in this
room today drive culture but that
cultural relevance is the secret sauce
that big brands are constantly looking
to cook up and in our hyper connected
society of today we no longer simply
accept whatever message of brand wants
to tell us we have the power to
influence brands I’ve seen this ship up
close and personal
I spent a better part of the last five
years working with a incredibly talented
group of communicators at Cadillac and
our challenge was to introduce this
iconic brand to a new generation of
consumers and what we found very early
on was that if we wanted to be relevant
everything we did to communicate our
values needed to come from a place of
authenticity and credibility and along
the way I had a bit of a realization
myself and because you see the customer
that Cadillac
looked to make a connection with sounded
a lot like me that customer came from a
metropolitan environment has a diverse
background so you don’t know if he is
black or white or Latino or another
racial makeup millennial entering his
prime years of bout buying power could
be single could be married to be gay to
be heterosexual
values individuality and believes that
tomorrow will be better than today just
like a lot of us sitting here today so I
thought to myself well if I’m the target
I can use my diversity of thought and my
diversity of background to help this
iconic brand win and along the way I no
longer view that our our customer as our
target but more so as my peer and just
like Barry Jenkins
I used my unique experiences and
backgrounds to build a cultural
connection with others but you would be
surprised how many brands miss the mark
when looking to influence us when
looking to build a cultural connection
with us they just simply don’t
understand our culture prime example
Pepsi
how many of you guys remember the
backlash that Pepsi received earlier
this year for that ad with kendall
Jenner now we don’t need to get into the
specifics and I’m sure that the team
behind the ad were well-intentioned but
clearly they missed the mark when they
believe that a can of soda could turn
the culture of activism and make it look
like Coachella and Pepsi is not the only
one how many of you guys have seen this
ad from Nivea to promote a new line of
clear deodorant I guess no one caught
the racial undertones but to make it
even worse this ad was targeted at
customers in the Middle East and what
about United Airlines with their
customer service disaster earlier this
year an argument could be made that they
got so caught up in their own internal
red tape that they lost sight of the
most basic culture of human decency and
empathy for others now there’s no
blanket strategy about how brands can
communicate the culture authentically
but there are some things that we can
learn from the way that we interact as
people every day that can serve as
guidance number one listen interacting
with others requires two-way dialogue
you’ve got you have to learn about what
is of importance to the community that
you want to to be accepted by and you
don’t you can’t learn how to interact if
you don’t know what to say
number two make impossible things
possible look to engage the community
that you want to be accepted by by
adding value it’ll be much easier for
that community to accept you if you’re
not only speaking their language but in
abling something to happen
number three people first everything
else second now look this one is a hard
one because they requires giving us
giving up a bit of control but we know
when we are being taken advantage of
we reject those that do so and number
four don’t hijack culture look make no
mistake every single one of us in this
room we are all cultural appropriators
but are we also appreciative
there’s a difference cultures requires
cultivation and if you simply hijack and
appropriate you lose credibility now if
you think about it we apply these four
basic principles in our everyday lives
about everything that we’re passionate
about we listen we engage we cultivate
we respect and I’ve learned that if we
take these four principles and apply
them in business we can leave a much
more meaningful mark on our society just
like Barry Jenkins did just like
Cadillac is looking to do so the point
is culture is us and we can as the
gatekeepers we cannot allow ourselves to
be hijacked appropriated and bankrupted
we work too hard
to curate every aspect of our lives to
make sure that we always have a sense of
fulfillment we should be able to hold
the brands and businesses we let into
our lives to the same standards thank
you
[Applause]
you
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