Today, we celebrate diversity and actively work to include people of all backgrounds, races, religions, disabilities, and more, but as recently as 1960, there were no Black voices in marketing and advertising. As a millennial, this is mind-boggling to me. I have been privileged to grow up in a time where the color of someone’s skin was simply seen as something beautiful, not a reason to ostracize. Learning about the struggles of our fellow human beings before and during the civil rights movement is painful, but when we don’t talk about our history, we become doomed to repeat it. That’s why recognition of Black History Month is so important, and why we are ecstatic to highlight these especially impactful Black pioneers in marketing.
Tom Burrell
Legendary marketer Tom Burrell changed the world of advertising when he broke through the scene in 1961. He was instrumental in creating marketing for Black consumers, making it his mission to ensure representation. Prior to his groundbreaking work, no one was focusing on Black culture or targeting their marketing efforts to this demographic.
Burrell pursued a career in advertising after a career aptitude test pointed him in that direction. Though a Black ad exec was unheard of at that time, Burrell didn’t let this dissuade him from his goals. He started his career in the mailroom of Wade Advertising Agency, working his way up to a marketing copywriter role within six months of working there, a first for the agency. Though he broke through this barrier, he was still not treated equally to his white counterparts: he was never permitted to meet clients.
After gaining valuable experience in the industry, Burrell partnered with Emmett McBain to start their own agency in 1971. The business would later become known as Burrell Communications, a full-service advertising agency specializing in promoting products to the African-American consumer, a company still standing today.
Burrell and McBain worked to convince their clients they could create television ads that would appeal to a Black audience, without offending the white audience. By coining and focusing on the phrase ‘Black people are not dark-skinned white people,’ Burrell started to see a shift in attitudes and strategies. At the time, if advertisers wanted to reach both Black and white audiences, it was customary to conceive the material featuring white actors or models and then reshoot with Black actors or models, ignoring the fact that what resonates with one audience might not with another. Burrell insisted that advertisers could reach audiences by creating authentic portrayals of their realities, a method he called positive realism.
Their clients, including large brands such as Marlboro, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, embraced the expertise they hired Burrell and McBain to provide. Burrell recognized the different mindsets and behaviors of Black people. Social change didn’t happen overnight, and the memories of both past and present discrimination wouldn’t just disappear because new laws said it was no longer acceptable. Decades of research went into this new-to-mainstream market, which gave Burrell the ability to properly and wholly educate those in the ad industry. His book, Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority, talks about their findings. Many uncomfortable discoveries were made, such as how a lopsided Black preference for high-end brands was driven by the need to compensate for feelings of low self-esteem. This desire for immediate gratification spun from uncertainty about the future.
Burrell left his company in 2004 to focus on being an author and lecturer on media and pop culture. His work has been recognized as some of the most influential of all time. Burrell had to convince people that you can be different and equal, and we are all better people and marketers today because of the groundwork he laid.
Barbara Gardner Proctor
Barbara Gardner Proctor started a career in advertising after being hired by the Post-Keyes-Gardner Agency in 1964. She found much success, winning 21 awards in three years. She moved on to Gene Taylor Associates in 1969 and later that year worked for North. It was there she found herself facing an ethical dilemma, after being tasked with executing an ad concept that would parody social justice marches and the Civil Rights movement. When she refused, she was promptly fired, leading her to the conclusion that she needed to be in charge of her own destiny, because she didn’t fit in with the current climate. She made history as the first African American woman to own and operate an advertising agency when she founded Proctor & Gardner Advertising, Inc. in 1970. Her pulse on the times was so astute, she used her married and maiden names to create the impression there might be a male co-founder. This helped overcome any chauvinism from potential clients.
In a time when it was generally unheard of for Black people to even be hired in advertising, Proctor got to work and built a multimillion-dollar company, despite having no capital or experience as a chief executive. Her company became the second largest African American owned agency in the country. Proctor’s resilience and commitment to excellence earned her numerous accolades in her lifetime, including being quoted by President Ronald Reagan in his State of the Union address and being cited in his 1986 special report “Risk to Riches: Women and Entrepreneurship in America.” Proctor is also featured in the Smithsonian’s “Black Women Achievement against the Odds Hall of Fame.”
Though her company faced difficulty and eventually closed in 1995, it was because she had effected such great change that other larger agencies began to recognize the value of the minority market and took over her niche in the industry. She righteously refused to create ads or work with products she believed were detrimental toward women or Black people, a stance which would cost her work.
While we chose this month to highlight Mr. Burrell and Ms. Proctor, we must regularly recognize the contributions and milestones that Black individuals have made in society. Their work is even more impressive considering the opposition and hardships they faced simply because of the color of their skin. Life looks different now than it did even 20 years ago, but there is still much work to be done. While some paths have been cleared, new generations of people of color will continue to shape how brands connect with diverse communities.
Last Updated on February 19, 2026 by Team Virid
