Exposing Anti-White Harassment + Discrimination in US Media Companies
FAQs
FCB
FAIL
fcb.com
TYPE: Advertising Agency
INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS: Vanguard Group Inc, BlackRock Inc., and State Street Corp. are the largest. Other significant institutional shareholders include Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and First Trust Advisors Lp, et al. (via parent company IPG)
OWNER: IPG (Interpublic Group of Companies)
SUBSIDIARIES:
2024 REVENUE:
U.S. HEADCOUNT: 1,100
387 Park Ave S, 11th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Kat.Grib@fcb.com
+1 212 885 3400
FCB's emphasizes DEIB* as a business imperative. The agency's structured internal framework, focusing on workforce representation and workplace inclusivity, along with initiatives like Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and unconscious bias training, could be implemented in a way that prioritizes certain groups. DEI racial equity training could be perceived as harassing White employees if it creates a hostile work environment or implicitly targets them based on race. Such training often emphasizes systemic racism, unconscious bias, and the need for racial equity, which may include discussions framing Whites as inherently privileged or complicit in perpetuating inequality. A slide titled "Themes From Black Employee Sessions: Preliminary Suggestions" from an FCB Global Town Hall meeting further illustrates this concern, as it outlines recommendations categorized into Leadership, HR & Management Practices & Process, and Recruiting & Outreach, with key suggestions including increasing Black representation, mandatory training on structural racism, and revised, race-conscious recruitment and review processes. The presence of employee groups like the IPG BEN (Black Employee Network, focused on supporting Black employees) at FCB, along with the agency’s use of local "Culture and Inclusion Communities" (previously Inclusion Councils, established around 2015) to advance DEIB initiatives, may foster perceptions of racial division. In one agency-wide meeting, FCB shared a slide titled "WORKFORCE - Our People" outlining "Immediate commitment and action across hiring principles" including a mandate that 50% of candidates considered must be "diverse," and that 60% of interns will be People of Color (POC).** In the same presentation, a slide titled "Continuing The Work..." outlined company training including Implicit Bias Tests, Intentional Inclusion training, and education on institutional racism, while calling attention to a D&I Conference and Speaker Series. Another slide, titled "THE WORK - Our Creative Solutions" outlined company actions around ensuring diversity in focus groups, ethnographies, and quantitative studies, demanding diversity plans from research vendors, "Disrupting your Thought Pattern" training, reviewing creative work based on an inclusion scale, ensuring diversity plans from production companies and casting agencies, and ensuring clients being pitched have diversity plans. Similarly, as highlighted in a LinkedIn post from FCB Global, even the agency's broader DE&I strategy, which includes embedding DE&I in hiring and retention practices, as explained by Marc Wilson, a Black man and FCB Chicago's EVP, Executive Director of Strategic Inclusion, could be perceived as prioritizing certain groups. Another FCB meeting slide detailing a "C&I Update" (likely Culture and Inclusion) showed a focus on "Diversity Talent Sourcing," HBCU outreach, and workshops facilitated by DeEtta Jones (a Black woman whose firm advocates dismantling “systems of oppression”), indicating a strong emphasis on race-based initiatives. Furthermore, an anonymous comment submitted to FCB NY criticized the agency for bringing in speaker Professor Eddie S. Glaude Jr., whose views the commenter characterizes as portraying all white people as white supremacists intent on harming Black people. Glaude instructs his students, “We have to allow this “innocent” idea of white America to die. It is irredeemable, but that does not mean we are too.” FCB's Juneteenth presentation featured the book 'White Fragility,' which promotes the idea that all white people are complicit in racism and should perpetually examine their 'white fragility' to dismantle it, raising concerns about mandatory anti-White racial training and potential viewpoint discrimination.
*DEI "equity" involves prioritizing certain racial, gender, or identity groups with targeted resources or opportunities to ensure equal outcomes at the cost of fairness and individual merit. DEI’s equity focus shares some similarities with communism and socialism in its group-based, redistributive approach, and with totalitarianism in ideological coercion.
**FCB’s practice of segregating employees into two distinct racial blocs, BIPOC vs White, is concerning.
Institutional investors like BlackRock and Vanguard increasingly emphasize Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors, including diversity and inclusion metrics, in their investment stewardship and proxy voting guidelines. This external pressure from major parent company shareholders likely serves as a significant driver for FCB's public commitments and strategic focus on ESG and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB). Consequently, accountability for the design and impact of DEI initiatives rests primarily with the company's leadership and board, who must navigate these influential investor expectations.
This information is based on publicly available information, including websites, case studies, and news articles from a recent period. To ensure you have the most accurate and current information, please refer to the company's official announcements. The information provided on this website is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice; consult a licensed attorney for specific legal guidance.
DieDEI.co is in possession of a substantial collection of internal FCB DEI materials. For the latest information, please follow our social media channels and subscribe to our newsletter.
FCB’s formerly-available DEIB page has been taken down.
NOTE: Client lists are subject to change. This information is based on publicly available information, including websites, case studies, and news articles from a recent period. To ensure you have the most accurate and current information, please refer to the company's official announcements.