Ad Industry Is Failing to Attract Black Professionals

In the summer of 2022, The Myers Report conducted a survey of 2,574 advertiser, agency and media professionals and found that only 4.4% identified as Black or African American. At one-third the projected size of the U.S. Black/Non-Hispanic population (12.1% according to the most recent 2020 Census), the ad industry still has much work to do in attracting and engaging this important demographic group. As recently as 2020 (pre-pandemic), The Myers Report had similar findings with 4.9% of the industry identified as Black or African American women and 1.6% as Black or African American men. Even the Association for National Advertisers (ANA), which primarily monitors progress in this area among marketers, reported in the fall of 2021 that 6.6% of professionals in their member companies identified as African American or Black -- roughly half of their presence in the general population.