After George Floyd's murder and the massive protests that followed,

we saw a lot of companies that felt like they needed to say something.

Do you remember what commercials were like in the summer of 2020?

The American Dream.

Queue, very serious music and voice of God narration.

It wasn't made for everybody.

The seemingly widespread embrace of Black voice overs.

It forgot about one very important detail. Black America.

Then there might be a 60-second capsule history of racism in America.

Maybe a vintage civil rights era photo, footage of that summer's protests,

candid portraits of young black people smiling at the camera,

or alternatively looking contemplative. Black dreams matter. Black voices matter. Black lives matter.

And then at some point, maybe you notice a discrete copyright 2020.

The Coca-Cola Company watermark at the bottom of the screen.

In this case, a commercial for Sprite.

Now that need to be out front of a national social movement,

it meant suddenly companies were proclaiming themselves allies.

To be silent is to be complicit as Netflix said on Twitter.

There were a lot of corporate tweets like that and a lot of commercials,

like that Sprite one. But there were also pledges, promises, and bulleted list of goals.

McDonald's said it would tie executive pay to diversity targets.

Companies from Zoom to General Electric created Chief Diversity Officer Physicians.

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