P&G | THE TALK | 2018
The World Has Changed, But This One Conversation Hasn't / P&G "THE TALK"
What comes to mind when you hear "the talk"? Most people think of the conversation about sex. But for Black parents in America, it meant something else entirely: the conversation where you teach your child the reality of racism. From that one gap in meaning came a film that won the Grand Prix at Cannes.
The problem
P&G's "My Black Is Beautiful" originally started as a small effort launched by six Black employees within the company. When it relaunched in 2016, a string of incidents involving Black Americans was in the news, and mothers were even factoring safety into decisions like choosing a college for their kids. Parents were wrestling with whether they'd have to have "that talk" with their children all over again.
The insight
Teneshia Jackson Warner of the multicultural agency Egami found something striking: the phrase "the talk" meant completely different things depending on who the parent was. That gap held real tension, and tension is what stories are made of. Rather than speaking to different audiences with different messages, they brought everyone together around one thing every parent shares: love for their child. Instead of throwing multiple messages at a divided country, they threw it a single word.
The idea
The two-minute film moves across different eras, showing Black mothers teaching their children about the harshness of the world. One mother tells her daughter, "You have to work twice as hard to be twice as good." A daughter who's just gotten her license says, "I'm a good driver, don't worry," and her mother answers, "I'm not worried about you getting a ticket. I'm worried about you getting home." The film was directed by Malik Vitthal, with the tagline "Let's all talk about 'The Talk.'"
What happened
It launched in June 2017 and spread from social media to radio, broadcast, and even into the show "Black-ish." It earned 1.86 billion impressions and was viewed more than 15 million times. It drew criticism from conservative media and police organizations, but P&G didn't back down — if anything, they increased its exposure. The film went on to win the Grand Prix in Film at Cannes, a D&AD Yellow Pencil, and even an Emmy.
Afterthought
The world has changed, but "the talk" hasn't. This film laid that out plainly, yet powerfully. P&G's refusal to back down in the face of criticism still moves me. This two-minute film proved that advertising doesn't just have to sell a product — it can open up a conversation itself.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2018
