The Black community has been one of the largest groups affected by COVID-19 and campaigns and social media posts are targeted daily for Black people to get vaccinated. Despite the high numbers and the promotion around the shot aimed at Black people, President Joe Biden’s administration hasn’t hardly used or contacted any of the largest Black media firms or advertising agencies to be a part of the health campaigns.
According to research analyzed by Black Enterprise, Black media companies have only received a fraction of the $212 million that was provided for the media to spread the word on the shot. The research obtained from the Department of Health and Human Services, which has been charged with oversight of COVID-19 vaccine outreach efforts, also showed that roughly a third of the paid media dollars on advertising was used to target Black Americans.
Several media companies, including Black Enterprise, Allen Media, #RolandMartinUnfiltered and others are now calling for the White House to distribute the money fairly or they plan to hold the Biden administration accountable. If their concerns are not met and addressed, the collective plans to call for an investigation into a pattern of “systemic racism” in federal government advertising that dates back to the Clinton administration, which included in its Executive Order that all federal departments and agencies place advertising with Black-owned media outlets and these entities at “fair market rates.”
Black media companies have also stated that the Biden administration needs to be “held accountable in ensuring that their Black firms gain federal advertising commitments that match their influence and percentage of the population — some 13% — as well as the outsized role the community played in getting Biden elected to the presidency in 2020.
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