Across many industries, including marketing and advertising, the gender pay gap remains a looming issue—especially for Latina women. In response, Justice for Migrant Women, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing migrant women’s rights through advocacy, marks every Dec. 8 as Latina Equal Pay Day.

As a way to advocate and spread awareness, Justice for Migrant Women launched the “Viva La Mujer Que Lucha” (“Long Live the Woman Who Fights”) social campaign based on data from a report called “Changemakers: Latinas Working to Close the Pay Gap.” According to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Latinas are paid, on average, 54 cents for every dollar made by white, non-Hispanic men.

The data looked at median annual reported earnings for Latinas across sectors, ethnicity, sexual orientation and country of origin for full-time, year-round, part-time and part-year workers. Created in partnership with Justice for Migrant Women, Poderistas and The Latinx House, the social campaign will also include a summit in Washington D.C. to continue the conversation with political leaders and activists.

Founder and president of Justice for Migrant Women, Mónica Ramírez, noted that this year, for the first time, data calculations in the report include part-time and full-time workers, making it more inclusive of all work experiences. The report not only highlights the importance of a more inclusive wage gap calculation, but also the need for legislative and societal change around equitable pay for Latinas, Native American, Black and trans women.

Leading the Latina Equal Pay Day campaigns since 2014, Ramírez emphasized the need for a continuous change to be made when collecting data to make sure all the experiences of women are being accounted for. Although the focus remains on the need for legislative change in receiving equitable pay, transparency and inclusivity in data reporting is a crucial element in advocating for change.

“This Pay Day, we are taking into account how many more days and months it takes for a Latina to be paid the equivalent of what a white male non-Hispanic worker was paid in 12 months, and in our case it takes nearly two years,” Ramírez said in a statement. “Since 1996, the data [represented] only people working full-time year round—that meant farm worker women, domestic workers. Part-time workers, their experiences were not being represented. So we pushed very hard to change the way that we calculate and talk about this number.”

Advocating for change

More recently, brands and agencies such as Eleven and the We Are Not a Stereotype campaign featuring women from various advertising agencies have made efforts in addressing the gender pay gap.

However, Ramírez emphasized the need for societal change around the way we address the pay gap issue in media and marketing. How the issue is depicted is vital to the way we understand the experiences of women and the way it impacts Latinas and other marginalized women.

“We know that there are women’s experiences in this country that we do not clearly understand yet,” Ramírez added. “The use of language of when it comes to equal pay is that it is catch-up and that is not accurate—we are actually trying to push the broader community to stop using that language. We do not catch up, we are behind.”

The social campaign “Viva La Mujer Que Lucha” can be seen across Justice for Migrant Women’s social channels under the #LatinaEqualPay tag.

Producer, actress and recent Beacon Award recipient Issa Rae has been a relentless advocate for inclusivity on her own crews and through her partnerships with brands including American Express and Google. She is continuing her focus on providing opportunities for marginalized creatives by working with Walmart to launch the Black & Unlimited Digital Development Program.

The partnership between the world’s largest retailer and Rae’s entertainment company, HOORAE Media, will provide nine Instagram and TikTok content creators chosen for their high potential with a $10,000 stipend meant to offset racial pay inequities. They will receive access to recorded lessons from highly successful influencers, development executives and celebrity content creators, plus equipment to be used for the coursework, which runs through January 2023. Those courses will later be shared across HOORAE Media channels.

“HOORAE is proud to partner with Walmart to support Black creators as they share their content with new audiences,” Rae said in a statement. “With the support of the Black & Unlimited Digital Development initiative, the selected creators will expand their brands and develop their voices in our underrepresented industry.”

Creating exclusive content

Walmart will send participants care packages to be used in crafting unboxing and haul content. The influencers will also travel to Los Angeles to star in content that will be shared exclusively on Walmart’s YouTube channel.

The first Black & Unlimited group has a collective social media following of more than 1 million and includes food blogger Alex Hill and The Archie Show host Archie Jay.

“There’s so much more to being a creator than developing content and sharing it with the world,” Walmart director of multicultural media partnerships D.J. Vaughn said in a statement. “We are excited to collaborate with HOORAE for the first time to provide Black Creators with the tools, resources and education they need to be successful through this innovative program.”

This week’s edition of Marketing Morsels is stuffed with delightful samplings from Velveeta, Josh Cellars, DoorDash and many more. Enjoy the assortment!

Morsel #1: Velveeta upgrades the booty call

Booty call? How about a Foodie Call? Based on survey results saying that more than half of fans would give up sex for cheese, and 70% saying the best time for mac and cheese is in bed with a partner, cheese-adjacent brand Velveeta is adding liquid gold to the post-coital (or non-coital) experience. On Nov. 18, between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m., fans can text the message “VEL, YOU UP?” to 855-VELVEETA to get a free Foodie Call Kit including a loaf of Velveeta, two Velveeta Shells & Cheese single cups and a gold half-spoon half-fork, as well as recipes for enhancing the dish. New York City fans may also receive more elaborate deliveries such as Deep-Delish Pizza Shells & Cheese or Please Me, Cheese Me Totchos.

Morsel #2: Cast her in an ad or Pete Davidson will (and by ‘her’ we mean his mom)

Pete Davidson’s latest commercial is with Manscaped, his second for the brand. The humorous spot, called  “Season’s Groomings,” also stars Davidson’s mom, who joins in festive antics to solve a holiday mystery.

Morsel #3: Fanta turned the Orange Moon into a vending machine

[embedded content]

Fanta ‘Orange Moon’ from Wunderman Thompson on Vimeo.

Timed to the Nov. 8 lunar eclipse, in which the moon turned orange, Fanta in Mexico celebrated its temporary similarity to the celestial body by transforming the moon into a vending machine. Fans in the country could take a photo of the eclipsed orange moon and tag @FantaMx on social with the hashtag #Fantamoon. Once the photos were authenticated, fans received a code for a free Fanta at McDonald’s or 7 Eleven.

Morsel #4: This Ranch is watching to see if you’re naughty or nice

You’ve heard of the Elf on the Shelf, but what about Ranch on a Branch? Hidden Valley has unleashed a watchful, plush bottle of Ranch named Ranchie and an accompanying storybook in which the character pursues simple acts of kindness. Similarly, those who purchase the collectible for $30 from the brand’s merch shop are encouraged to move Ranchie to a new location every day. As its own act of kindness, the brand will donate $30,000 to Feeding America.

Morsel #5: Stella Artois makes holiday schmoozing a bit simpler

Socialization at holiday parties is the anxiety of every introvert, and to ease the awkwardness Stella Artois is offering more than social lubricant. The beer brand’s peel-off labels feature conversation starters such as “What’s a feeling you wish you could feel again?” and “What role has luck played in your life?” based on the card game and social platform We’re Really Not Strangers.

Morsel #6: Serena Williams wraps more than her legendary tennis career

DoorDash teamed up with the great Serena Williams on the ultimate gift wrapping kit—and delivered it right to people’s doors for free. On Nov. 17, customers had the opportunity to claim the Serena x DashPass Wrap Pack, and for each one claimed, the brand donated $10 to the Yetunde Price Resource Center, which offers “trauma-informed programs that promote individual and community-wide healing and resiliency.”

Morsel #7: Josh Cellars celebrates Joshgiving with Josh… and Josh… and Josh

Winemaker Josh Cellars is Joshing around for Thanksgiving—er, Joshgiving—with anyone named Josh. Founder Joseph “Josh” Carr and music star Josh Groban joined Joshes of all sorts to participate in volunteer activities, make donations and “acts of thanks,” as an extension of the brand’s community service-focused purpose.

Morsel #8: Varo aims to be “That Bank” with Russell Westbrook

All-digital tech bank Varo has positioned itself as “That Bank”—That Moving-Out-of-Mami’s-House-Bank, That First-Stamp-in-My-Passport Bank—in a new video and out-of-home campaign starring NBA player Russell Westbrook. The brand worked with agency 22Squared to launch the campaign with an approachable, transparent and relatable message.

Morsel #9: Frank’s Red Hot heats up the holidays

A survey from Frank’s Red Hot found that 93% of people like at least a little heat in their food—and that spicy food fans are more adventurous eaters. Also among the findings: 62% of these hotheads consider themselves attractive, and 66% are more content with their lives than milder heat lovers. To meat these heat lovers at home, the brand launched a kit around its newly released Frank’s RedHot Injector Marinade, which it’s billing as a way to spice up holiday meals.

With KFC’s recent social media firestorm surrounding an automated promotional message, it’s important for brands and agencies to reflect on how to prevent communication missteps.

All across the advertising world, teams are under pressure to always be creating content, whether it’s to satisfy ever-changing and often capricious algorithms on platforms or to juice more engagement out of their audience to help prove their jobs are valid to the powers that be.

This never-ending need for content and to consistently be present has led to an increase in “celebratory” days and users’ phones and feeds being flooded with content created so brands can participate—but that often isn’t adding value or encouraging meaningful engagement (and, in turn, affinity) for the brand.

Instead of simply working on autopilot and going through a calendar to create content for each holiday and “national” day, agencies should be guiding their brands to value quality and alignment with goals—and examine whether they should participate at all.

If social or content teams are given the space and autonomy to take a step back from the daily grind, the impact on the work produced would more than likely lean toward the positive, with consumers genuinely interacting with the brand.

This approach could have helped the team behind KFC’s automated message to think more critically about the significance of the day being highlighted for the promotion, rather than flippantly suggesting adding more cheese to customers’ chicken sandwiches.

So where do you start to be more aware and intentional about how you’re showing up around holidays?

First, go back to the troves of research and audience data that many brands are sitting on: What makes your customers tick? Having a handle on the things that matter to them and how they are expecting brands to show up could potentially release teams from the pressure to always show up. Many consumers, especially younger ones, are looking for brands to be authentic and give a collective eyeroll when their feeds, emails and push notifications are flooded with empty commemorative day messages.

Connect with your social media team to better understand the trends your audience is talking about and participating in. Then identify if you’ve got a right to participate or contribute to the trend—you may find that you can build something that resonates more than a simple “celebrate X holiday with our product” by paying attention to the ways your audience is using various platforms and choosing to engage with your brand and each other. 

Finally, make sure you understand the significance outside of marketing for any dates you want to align with. Could there be a risk in not acknowledging a specific memorial date or day of remembrance from your brand channels? Potentially—but I’d venture the number of comments from people challenging your brand will be few and far between.

Understand and assess the risks associated with potentially not saying anything, and devote time and resources to the times where you can shine for the right reasons.

If you’ve ever worked in social media or digital marketing for a brand, chances are you’ve had your fair share of moments when panic sunk in as you’ve realized something that should not be live on your channels was published.

As someone who has worked in the space for 14 years, I can tell you those moments are some of the worst, especially when the messaging is something that negatively affects your consumers and can lead to breaking their trust in your brand.

That’s exactly what happened recently when KFC sent out a promotional alert on its app telling their customers in Germany to treat themselves to commemorate Kristallnacht—the 1938 Nazi-led pogrom widely considered to be the beginning of the Holocaust.

KFC sent out a message soon after, apologizing and stating that the unapproved message was sent in error through a semi-automated push notification on its app linked to calendars that include national observances. By that point, however, it had already received backlash on social media.

The bottom line is someone should have reviewed the calendars to make sure the content being distributed was appropriate and relevant to intended audiences. If someone had done their due diligence, they would have flagged it as inappropriate.

But this incident raises a couple other points that all brands with a digital footprint should consider when building their strategy, such as the drawbacks of scheduling social and digital posts, and what happens when there is a lack of human quality control over editorial calendars.

Unfortunately, we continue to see many companies that still don’t consider social media as important as other marketing jobs or one that requires more than a one-person team. Many brands are becoming more reliant on automated tools to do a lot of the critical editorial development, therefore lacking strategic planning around their calendars.

While there are benefits and needs for companies to schedule some posts, there are also pitfalls, especially with automated pushes, so it’s crucial for brands to assess the systems and processes they have in place.

Breaking brand trust

Sometimes when you are scheduling several days’ or weeks’ worth of activity at once for various pages, things can get mixed up. A post may end up on the wrong channel, with the wrong messaging or scheduled for the wrong day or time, and you won’t know until the post goes live and, you guessed it, your customers flag it to you first online.

But if that message is offensive, it will not only make your brand seem inept and insensitive—it will make your brand come off as impersonal, and customers will notice right away, especially when prescheduled posts are irrelevant to the intended audience or to current or breaking news.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen brands go live with posts about product launches or premieres in the middle of tragic breaking news, all because posts had been scheduled and teams had forgotten to pause them.

That is why it’s especially important for brands to have a team who knows what content is being distributed and where, and ensuring it is appropriate. You can’t rely on machines or tools to do that for you.

Coming off as out of touch

When something like the Kristallnacht message goes out because of an automated process, and you don’t have a team checking editorial calendars for multiple pages and markets, brands risk coming off as out of touch, negatively affecting their brand equity.

Another issue that contributes to appearing out of touch is when scheduled key posts or messages go live at a time when no one from the team will be available to notice activity from their audience and not being able to respond in real time.

There are benefits to companies that choose to schedule promotional posts, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that automating the function comes with a lot of risks that might outweigh those benefits.

Reaching audiences

When done with the necessary checks and processes in place to review editorial content and strategies before publication, scheduling posts can be beneficial to companies looking to reach customers in different markets and time zones at peak times to maximize media consumption and awareness. This still requires a level of human nuance—what is relevant to one audience is not necessarily relevant to another.

Saving time

Creating and pushing out promotional posts can be time-consuming, especially those with lean social and digital teams. Scheduling posts ahead can open up critical time for teams to work on other aspects of their jobs that help drive impact and growth for the company. That said, having human quality control and making sure that someone is actually reviewing content and messaging is crucial.

There is a lot of work and time that go into managing social and digital spaces for companies. Those who think scheduling and automated tools will help to better manage efficiencies should also consider the potential pitfalls when assessing their best approach to building out their digital strategy.

Whichever direction brands decide to take, they need to have a process in place to make sure their editorial content strategy is always relevant and resonates with their intended audience.

On this episode of Everything Is Better With Creators, we discuss the mantra “Evolve or Die.” How do brands stay up to date amid the ever-changing social media landscape? And how are they using creators to succeed?

Host Jamie Gutfreund interviews Adweek’s chief content officer, Ann Marinovich, to help understand creators’ impact on the marketing industry.

Marinovich has helped build content for some of the most successful media companies out there, including Forbes and The Information. Marinovich discusses how Adweek is taking on the responsibility to educate brands on the creator economy, what it means for the industry and where she thinks it is headed. 

Get ready for this masterclass from a marketing master herself. 

Listen to the episode below and check out other shows in the Adweek Podcast Network.