McDonald’s has partnered with the Marcus Graham Project to increase diversity in marketing.
Black professionals only make up 5.8 percent of marketers in the United States. Of that small percentage, 68 percent of those employees are admin or entry-level, and 43.5 percent are in non-management roles, according to the American Association of Advertising Agencies. The Marcus Graham Project, which works to also increase the number of Black professionals in media. has teamed up with McDonald’s to bring in 13 aspiring marketers of color into the MGP summer iCR8™ Bootcamp, where the professionals will work as an intergrated team to impact actual marketing campaigns for McDonald’s.
“The longstanding drastic underrepresentation of Black professionals in the marketing industry underscores the importance of training programs like our iCR8™ Bootcamp,” said Lincoln Stephens, co-founder and chairman of the Marcus Graham Project. “As we celebrate our 15-year anniversary, we are crystal clear about how lives and career paths can drastically change when immersed in real-world learning. This is why we are honored to work with McDonald’s to provide Bootcamp participants with invaluable insider knowledge and experience they can use in careers in marketing and media.”
The boot camp began on June 6 in Los Angeles, and will continue for 11 weeks where participants are receiving training, mentorship, real-world workforce exposure, an opportunity to present their work at the McDonald’s headquarters and chance to interview for a number of internships and entry-level roles of two McDonald’s partner marketing and PR agencies.
