Procter & Gamble Talks the Talk on Diversity, But Fails to Walk the Walk
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACT: Stefanie Spear, sspear@asyousow.org, 216-387-1609
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA—Sept. 15, 2020—Today, As You Sow announced that it has been unable to reach an agreement with Procter & Gamble, sending its shareholder resolution on diversity disclosure to a showdown at the Oct. 13 annual meeting. During months of talks, Procter & Gamble continued to steadfastly refuse to report on how it assesses the effectiveness of its diversity and inclusion programs. This sits in contrast to other companies where As You Sow has made similar requests, including Gilead, JPMorgan Chase, Mastercard, MetLife, Morgan Stanley, and Oracle, which have all agreed to meaningful increases in their diversity reporting. Specifically, investors are asking Procter & Gamble for goals, metrics, and trends related to its promotion, recruitment, and retention of protected classes of employees. Shareholders want Procter & Gamble to show that its internal practices match its extensive advertising campaign focused on race relations in America.
“P&G may have great diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, but there is no way for investors to know how effective their efforts are if they will not disclose the details,” said Meredith Benton, Workplace Equity Program Manager for As You Sow and Principal at the consultancy Whistle Stop Capital.
Investors are concerned Procter & Gamble risks being seen as exploitive if it continues to advertise themes of gender and race without providing detailed data on its own internal diversity. The company currently provides very limited data around the diversity of its employees and does not provide information linked to promotion, recruitment, or retention rates of these employees.
As part of the company’s $7.33 billion annual advertising budget, Procter & Gamble has built a race-focused campaign releasing several short films, including “The Talk” (showing the unique conversations Black parents need to have with their children), “The Look” (depicting the subtle ways in which a Black man experiences bias throughout the day), “Circumstances” (detailing the higher death rate of African Americans from COVID-19), and “The Choice” (asking how Black Americans should respond to incidents indicating their lives do not matter). “The Choice” shows the words, “Not being racist is not enough. Now is the time to be anti-racist,” juxtaposed over a close-up of female Caucasian cheek bone. The text continues, “Words and feelings are not enough. Now is the time to take action.”
“How do words become actions?” asked Andrew Behar, As You Sow CEO. “We engage many companies that say the right words about their diversity programs however, we do not know what actions are actually being taken. In today’s climate of racial justice awareness, it's time for P&G to show the world that they are leading by example.”
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As You Sow is a nonprofit organization that promotes environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, coalition building and innovative legal strategies. Click here to see As You Sow’s shareholder resolution tracker.