Why Google Went 'All In' on Inclusive Marketing

'We weren't getting it right,' until the company overhauled its strategy—and shared it with the whole industry

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Google didn’t get to be the world’s most visited website by making mistakes. And that’s much of why CMO Lorraine Twohill’s 2022 address at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity was something of a needle-scratch moment. When it came to diversity in its marketing, Twohill admitted, Google had goofed.

“We weren’t getting it right,” the veteran marketing chief told her audience. In particular, she added, “we were very bad on darker skin tones, and we were leaning into stereotypes.”

Google’s

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This story first appeared in the March 2023 issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.