Some companies and agencies are quietly stepping back from DEI.
We’re not. At Shinebox, diversity, equity and inclusion aren’t buzzwords—they’re building blocks. They make our work better, our team stronger and our ideas more relevant in a polarized world that demands empathy and nuance.

As a small agency, we don’t have layers of red tape or watered-down values. We move fast, think big and bring a wide range of lived experiences into every room, every project, every conversation. DEI helps us do that with intention—not just instinct. In many places, DEI is difficult to touch. But we like to do hard things. So here’s our point of view. Maybe it will help you talk DEI with peers, employees and clients.

Our approach

Shared beliefs and observed behavior are the foundation of our approach to strategy. Organizations and brands that are suddenly divesting themselves of DEI initiatives (behavior) will discover that customers and employees will reconcile the dissonance between a brand’s belief and behavior with distrust and cynicism. Those are brand killers.

Words are important. So let’s define the ideas behind the words, and explain why it’s important to us—and for agencies in general—in having an effective business, an authentic brand and a creative culture.

Diversity is creativity.

Diversity borrows, mixes, evolves and creates something new. Diversity is the engine behind creation and evolution. A good example is music. The Beatles don’t exist without Motown. Diversity makes us stronger and minimizes risk in the same way diversity is good for your gene pool and your investment portfolio. Uniformity and segregation are not creative. And we’re in the business of being creative.

Equity is access.

It’s the path to fairness, a concept we all learn to value as toddlers. It is distributing opportunity to everyone. It is not re-distributing opportunity with or without merit. To believe that access given means access is taken, is to believe the economy is a zero-sum, zero-growth closed system. And we’re in the business of growth.

Inclusion is growth.

Our job is to find ways to include more people in a brand’s story. So it makes a lot of sense to include more people with more backgrounds and more experiences in telling those stories.

Diversity, equity and inclusion is outreach.

It does not mean hiring without merit. It’s about improving awareness of and access to networks of people and vocations that were historically opaque and out of reach for many. Networks have self-propagating traits and are exclusive by nature; it’s nothing to feel guilty about. But it is something to compensate for. At one point it seemed like 80% of the ad people in the Twin Cities lived within 10 blocks of the chain of lakes. Imagine trying to penetrate that network of neighbors, friends and colleagues without connections or even knowledge that it exists.

As with many industries built on networking, advertising thrives on who you know. Of course it takes talent as well. Our goal is to actually elevate the role of talent and mitigate the influence of who you know. Another way to think about it—DEI is about expanding who you know.

The truth

Connecting with a diverse population of real people requires a diverse team of real people. If a team thinks, talks and acts the same, it’s not seeing the full picture. The work will reflect its source. DEI gives us range and perspective. It’s a competitive advantage and helps us build brands that resonate across cultures and communities without defaulting to tropes or chasing trends.

This year, our agency won the Mosaic Addy Award for work that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion. Maybe someday that award won’t be necessary. But we’re not there yet, and we hope we’re not the last agency to ever win it. We’re not here to do what’s easiest. We’re here to do what’s right and what works—for our clients, our team and our community. So no—we’re not backing away from DEI. We’re doubling down.