You may have already seen the ad-industry viral "Inclusive Musical's" first song that mocks our ad industry casting meetings where we try and check every possible box when considering people for our commercials, a very contrived approach to diversity. The standard interracial couple dancing at the start is hilariously mismatched in height, and it gets sillier from there.
A rather risky skit, considering CCOs have been frog-marched out the door for half a decade-old emails suggesting different casting. But two comedians and advertising creative directors, David Roth and Yuriy Mikhalevskly felt the urge to call out the ad industry for our awkward treatment of race and social issues.
Inspired by Walmart’s Juneteenth-flavored ice cream, Salesforce’s non-binary corporate mascot Astro, and Kendal Jenner’s BLM Pepsi ad, plus countless displays of performative inclusivity in meetings, Roth and Mikhalevskly wanted to poke fun at ourselves but also say what people are too afraid to say. The high-production video was initially met with resistance as nobody within the advertising world would touch it. Sometimes it's cathartic to laugh at the absurd conversations that happen behind the scenes in the advertising industry.
Please note, Cheerios had nothing to do with this, it's simply a nod to the cheerios ad that got a lot of press due to the interracial couple in it, back in 2013.
Credits: David Roth and Yuriy Mikhalevskly