What would a 21st century Kendrix public relations campaign look like?

Kendrix recognized that African American consumers were a significant market that was being ignored and unrepresented by mainstream media. He reached this audience by making them feel seen. Today, although there is still more work to be done, inclusive public relations and advertising campaigns are aimed at a broad range of shoppers and their potential purchasing power. They are more reflective of society by including people diverse in age, appearance, ethnicity, and gender identity, as well as language, socio-economic status, religion, spirituality, and physical and mental abilities.

Kendrix literally cut-and-pasted photographs together to create his iconic photomontages, but modern computer programs can easily modify, combine, crop, and duplicate images, without the need for scissors or glue.

Kendrix used press releases and advertisements to reach his audience in print. Social media enables modern public relations campaigns to reach millions of scrolling fingers. As with his modern counterparts, the power of face-to-face interactions and building rapport with people was crucial to Kendrix’s success.