How Pinterest is Advocating for Underrepresented Communities and Cultural Sensitivity

Earlier this year, in a push to create a more diverse community and deliver unique and hyper-refined results for every person, Pinterest upgraded its skin tone feature launched initially in 2018 and opened it to more regions including the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The move was fueled by earlier research that found over half (60%) of the top 100 search terms for skin-related searches on the platform also included a tone.

Today, Pinterest is furthering its commitment to underrepresented users and demonstrating that it understands its users can’t feel inspired if they don’t feel represented. Here’s a breakdown of what the platform has in the works.

A new self-identification tool

Following its recent introduction of Story Pins and curated spaces, Pinterest is committed to ensuring that 50 percent of the managed creators it works with come from underrepresented groups.

“As we continue to build a platform for everyone, it’s important that the ideas Pinners discover and take action on are inclusive of our global community…We’re continuing to make progress on our commitments to support meaningful change—whether it’s increasing the discoverability of diverse ideas to reflect our hundreds of millions of Pinners, using our marketing channels to help drive change or our amplifying creators from all backgrounds and experiences.” the platform shared in the official announcement.

Pinterest further explained that its aim is to have those who self-identify via its upcoming tool see their content in key areas across the platform including the Today tab, Shopping Spotlights and the Pinterest Shop. This will all be centrally managed by retailers, creators, and advertisers through the Community Information tab in the settings menu — but the catch is these must be registered business profiles.

“Make the World See All Beauty” Campaign

As part of this event and in partnership with advertising agency 72andSunny, Pinterest also kicked off its newest campaign “Make the World See All Beauty,” including a social film and V Magazine cover wrap which shines a light on 10 creators pushing the boundaries and driving the conversations surrounding diversity and inclusion. The film highlights some of their personally captured content with the goal of displaying a more representative future — one where the beauty world sees all variations of beauty.

The campaign will go live on Pinterest creator social channels and YouTube in addition to exclusive content in Story Pins. Participating creators include Nyma Tang, Kiitan Akinniranye, Tennille Murphy, Kiitan Akinniranye, and Nam Vo.

Differentiating between appropriation and appreciation

In an effort to use an atypical Halloween and holiday season to drive awareness about cultural sensitivity — Pinterest earlier this month announced that it would implement informational prompts into key searches as people planned their unique celebrations at home.

“Many people may not know that certain costumes are appropriations of other cultures. As a platform for positivity, we want to make it easy to find culturally-appropriate Halloween ideas, and bring awareness to the fact that costumes should not be opportunities to turn a person’s identity into a stereotyped image,” the platform explained.

To help brands and Pinners give additional consideration to the campaign tie-ins and decisions around these celebrations, searches — like for “Day of the Dead costumes” — will now show a Pin at the top of results with information curated by Pinterest employee group PIndigenous and experts such as Dr. Adrienne Keene on how to celebrate thoughtfully and respectfully. Additionally, the platform will limit recommendations for costumes that appropriate cultures.

Whether in the context of Halloween or otherwise, these conversations are integral to advancing as a society and an industry. The Black Lives Matter movement has fundamentally altered the advertising industry and accelerated the need for brands to tackle tough questions head-on including how they define terms including “diversity” and “inclusion” within their own organization but also how that is manifested in their messaging to consumers. With this, they also have an important role to play in understanding the difference between performative action and a real, long-term strategy and commitment to DE&I.

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