the pioneers and heroes of non-white advertising

Throughout history, people of color have struggled to gain control over their images in advertising to present their own vision of exactly what it means to be black, Latino and Asian.

Members of those communities that bravely joined the ad industry had a dual responsibility: to their clients in selling their products, and to the larger population in working to change advertising’s depictions of them from negative to positive.

In turn, minorities created the opportunities for themselves in the advertising industry primarily by establishing their own consumer markets.

These are the stories of Tom Burrell, Joe Lam, Frank Mingo, Caroline Jones, and Hector and Norma Orci.

This gallery installation featured biographies of each pioneer, pieces of their transcendental advertising work and brilliant portrait-style illustrations hand-painted by Will Godwin.