What is inclusive PR for multicultural brands? Inclusive PR is the practice of building campaigns with the audiences they describe, instead of adding diversity at the end. The costs of skipping that step are public: Pepsi pulled a Kendall Jenner ad within a day of its April 2017 release, and H&M removed a hoodie image and the garment itself worldwide in January 2018. Both cases started with a review process that did not catch what audiences saw at once.
Originally published June 2022. Updated October 2026.
What is inclusive public relations?
Inclusive public relations is the work of planning, writing and reviewing communications so that people of different backgrounds are represented accurately and are involved in making the work. It covers who sits on the team, whom the research includes, how images and language are reviewed and how the company responds when it gets something wrong.
It is related to multicultural marketing but not the same thing. Multicultural marketing is about reaching and serving specific cultural audiences, as covered in the multicultural marketing guide. Inclusive PR is about the process that keeps any campaign from alienating or misrepresenting people.
What do the Pepsi, Dove and H&M cases show?
The three cases show that campaigns fail in public within hours when the review process misses how a message reads to the people it depicts. Each company removed the work quickly and apologized, which limited the damage but did not prevent it.
| Brand | Date | What happened | Response |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pepsi | April 2017 | An ad showed Kendall Jenner joining a protest and handing a police officer a can of Pepsi, and critics said it trivialized social justice protests | Pulled the ad the next day and apologized, as the Associated Press reported |
| Dove | October 2017 | A Facebook ad showed a Black woman removing a shirt to reveal a white woman, and critics said it implied one skin tone was cleaner than another | Removed the ad and apologized for missing the mark on representing women of color, per a report on the apology |
| H&M | January 2018 | A website image showed a Black child wearing a hoodie that read "Coolest monkey in the jungle," which critics called racist | Removed the image and the garment from sale globally, according to Euronews |
The Pepsi ad was criticized for evoking a widely shared photograph of a Black Lives Matter protester approaching a police officer in Baton Rouge in 2016, according to the AP. A professor of marketing quoted by the AP said the backlash was partly because Pepsi arrived late to the conversation about unity, which made the ad seem exploitative. The cases do not prove that a more diverse team would have avoided each error. They show the kind of error that a broader review is meant to catch.
Where do inclusive PR failures start?
Inclusive PR failures usually start before the campaign is written, at three points: who is in the room, whom the research covers and when the review happens. A team that is drawn from one background tends to share the same blind spots. Research that does not include the people depicted cannot show how the work will read to them. And a review that happens after the work is finished catches little, because changing it is costly.
A common shortcut is to build a campaign and then swap in more diverse faces at the end. Audiences notice, and the gaps in the story show. A campaign with a diverse audience in mind should begin with that audience's own experience and language.
How do you build an inclusive campaign?
Build an inclusive campaign in five steps, and involve the people the campaign describes at each one.
- Research the audience by speaking with members of it, not only reading reports about it.
- Put people from that audience on the team and in the approval chain.
- Draft the story from the audience's point of view and check the language with native speakers where it is translated or adapted.
- Run a structured review before release, using the checklist below.
- Monitor reaction in the first hours and have a response ready.
The PR plan guide explains where the review and response steps fit in the schedule.
What should a pre-release review check?
A pre-release review should ask a short, fixed set of questions about every image, headline and claim. The table gives the questions and what each is meant to catch.
| Question | What it catches |
|---|---|
| Who is shown, and who is missing? | Unintended exclusion or stereotyping |
| Could any image or phrase carry a second meaning for the people depicted? | Accidental offense, such as a slogan with a history |
| Does the story echo a real news event or a protest? | Trivializing a serious issue, as in the Pepsi case |
| Was the work reviewed by someone from the audience it depicts? | Blind spots the core team shares |
| Does the message match what the company actually does? | A claim that reads as exploitation |
| What is the response if it goes wrong? | Slow reaction after release |
Record the answers and name the person who approved the work. That record shows whether the process ran and gives the team something to improve after each campaign.
How do you build a more inclusive team and partner network?
Build a more inclusive team by widening where you recruit, who you hire as freelancers and agencies, and which creators and community groups you work with. Inclusion inside the company changes what reaches the review table. It also gives the company people to ask.
- Recruit for communications roles through channels that reach a range of candidates.
- Hire freelance writers, designers and translators from the communities you want to reach.
- Partner with community organizations and creators who have standing with the audience, and pay them for their time.
- Rotate reviewers so one voice does not carry every decision.
The influencer marketing guide covers choosing creators, and the cultural diversity in customer service guide covers the same principle in service settings.
How do you audit your existing campaigns?
Audit existing campaigns by counting who appears and who speaks, then comparing the result with your audience and your own workforce. Take the last twelve months of ads, social posts and releases and tally the people shown, the voices quoted and the languages used.
| Check | What to count |
|---|---|
| People shown | The mix of backgrounds in images and video |
| Voices quoted | The spokespeople and experts named in releases |
| Languages | Which audience languages receive translated or adapted material |
| Accessibility | Captions, alt text and readable contrast |
| Complaints | Comments and emails that raise representation concerns |
The audit is a description, not a verdict. It shows where to look. The guide to marketing to the visually impaired covers the accessibility row.
What should a brand do when a campaign causes offense?
A brand should remove the work, say plainly what went wrong and say what changes, and it should do this within hours. Pepsi's statement said it had missed the mark and was removing the content and halting any further rollout. H&M removed the image and the garment. Both responses were fast and specific, which the brands needed because the first reaction spread within a day.
Do not argue that the audience misunderstood. The crisis statement templates and the corporate apology guide explain how to word the admission, and the crisis communications guide sets out the full response.
How do you avoid tokenism and false claims?
Avoid tokenism by making sure the company's actions support its statements about inclusion. A campaign that celebrates a community while the company ignores it in hiring, products or service invites criticism. State only what you can show, and attribute any statistic to a named source.
The PR ethics guide explains why accuracy and disclosure apply to claims about values, and the Patagonia case shows a company whose actions carried its message.
How should a small company start with inclusive PR?
A small company should start with one change: add a review step before anything goes out. Ask two people from outside the core team, ideally from the audience the work describes, to read or watch the draft and answer the checklist questions. Pay them for their time.
Then keep a simple record of what each reviewer flagged and what changed. After three or four campaigns the record shows which kinds of mistakes recur, and that tells the company where to add training, partners or research.
What mistakes do brands make with diversity messaging?
Brands make four common mistakes with diversity messaging: joining a social issue they have no history with, using a community as a prop, translating without adapting and staying silent after a complaint. Each reads as opportunism, and audiences compare the message with the company's record.
The fix is to link the message to an action the company has taken, to credit the people involved and to answer complaints in public. A brand that cannot do those things is better off saying less and doing more.
How do you measure inclusive PR?
Measure inclusive PR by process and by result. Process measures include the share of campaigns that went through the review checklist and the number of reviewers from the audiences depicted. Result measures include the sentiment of coverage and comments among those audiences, the number of complaints and the time taken to respond.
Set a baseline before changing the process, and review quarterly. The PR ROI guide explains how to set goals and report results honestly.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between multicultural marketing and inclusive PR?
Multicultural marketing targets specific cultural audiences with relevant products and messages. Inclusive PR is the process that makes any communication accurate, respectful and involving of the people it describes.
Why did Pepsi pull its Kendall Jenner ad?
Critics said the April 2017 ad trivialized social justice protests, and Pepsi pulled it the next day, apologizing for missing the mark, according to the Associated Press.
How can a small company get diverse input on a campaign?
Ask community organizations, customers and freelancers from the audience to review the work, and pay them for their time. A short, structured review is better than an informal glance.
Can a diverse team guarantee a campaign will not cause offense?
No. A broader team and a structured review reduce the risk, but they do not remove it. A response plan is still needed.
How quickly should a brand respond to criticism?
Within hours. Pepsi and H&M removed their work within a day of the backlash, and delay lets the criticism spread.
Ronn Torossian is the founder and chairman of 5W AI Communications. He is the publisher of Everything-PR and the author of two best-selling editions of For Immediate Release.