OWN Partners With ANA’s #SeeHer Initiative to Improve Portrayal of Black Women on Screen (EXCLUSIVE)
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The Oprah Winfrey Network has announced it is partnering with the Association of National Advertisers’ #SeeHer initiative, which aims to increase the accurate portrayal of women and girls in advertising and media, Variety has learned exclusively.
The partnership is designed to encourage and empower brands to apply an intersectional lens in ads and entertainment media to help more Black women see themselves authentically reflected in content, combining the forces of #SeeHer’s leading brands with OWN’s expertise, data, and brand that celebrates Black women.
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“It’s a beautiful moment in media when national blue-chip brands support a deliberate intention to engage with Black women and boldly declare that not only do we see her, but we celebrate her,” said Sheereen Russell, group vice president of ad sales and partnership solutions at OWN. “OWN is proud of the endless ways we are reflecting her specificity, her endless expressions of beauty, her nuanced love stories, her family heritage, her triumphs, her challenges, her accomplishments, and her many conversations on our network. We are delighted to partner with SeeHer to design meaningful opportunities for all their members to engage with our audiences across our linear, digital, social and experiential platforms.”
#SeeHer co-chair and P&G chief brand officer Marc Pritchard is set to announce the partnership at the ANA Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference in San Diego this morning.
“Brands can be a force for good and a force for growth, and SeeHer’s partnership with OWN is a powerful way to help brands build a better world through accurate portrayals of all women and girls in advertising and media,” Pritchard said.
“Media has a profound impact on society and culture. This opportunity with OWN will illuminate the beautiful complexity of Black women and their stories,” added Knatokie M. Ford, SeeHer executive advisor for entertainment engagement and STEM
Oprah Winfrey also released the following message to herald the partnership:
The partnership will consist of four main elements, which are listed below:
SeeHer | See Yourself salons
Salons will feature an intimate setting for storytellers, influencers and leading brands; and will highlight best practices for authentic storytelling.
Industry event collaborations
SeeHer + OWN partnership and emerging resources will be highlighted on panels at relevant industry events.
Custom Content
OWN and SeeHer will work together to create custom short form content for brands that will live on-air on OWN and across multiple platforms.
#WriteHerRight Tip Sheet
With SeeHer’s deepening emphasis on intersectionality, a custom #WriteHerRight tip sheet will be co-developed with OWN and shared with SeeHer members. For context, SeeHer launched #WriteHerRight in 2018 to support storytellers’ efforts to integrate more authentic depictions of women into their work. As part of the outreach, SeeHer produced a tip sheet for storytellers to facilitate conversation about gender equality with showrunners, actors, and network executives by bringing effective, story-building language and tools into the writers’ rooms.
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