From All-In to AdColor - Meet our Google Ally Melú Lopéz
Image Description: NAAFA Executive Director Tigress Osborn and Google Executive Melina Lopez pose standing in front of a large-scale gold replica of the AdColor logo, an abstract capital A encircled by a capital C. Tigress is a fat Black woman with light-brown skin and a fluffy side ponytail, wearing a long gold sequined gown and a gold sequinned face mask, and using a shiny bronze cane. Melina is a small-fat Latinx woman with light skin and dark hair, wearing a long light-green dress with long fringe along the arms and bottom.
Google is one of the most powerful companies in the world. More than a billion people use their search engine every day, and Google products are in our homes, offices, and schools. Google’s example can create ripple effects with other businesses in any industry, so when they reached out to us in 2020 to invite us to participate in their All-in project, it was an opportunity unlike any NAAFA had experienced before.
All-in partners with respected organizations to learn and share insights on how to represent those organizations’ communities authentically in marketing. These insights are gathered by Google and shared publicly, with the aim of setting an example for other businesses, especially other tech companies, of how to work towards better representation, especially of those communities and identities who are often underrepresented or misrepresented in the media. When they reached out to us, guidelines had already been created for different racial groups, LGBTQIA+ people, disabled people, and others. The Plus-Size Guidelines were championed by two Google staff, Melú Lopez and Maria Gianopolous, each committing to this project on top of their daily duties in other departments. (If you missed it live when the guidelines debuted last year, you can click here to see Melú and Maria on the NAAFA Webinar Series discussing our work together).
After the guidelines debuted, Melú continued to regularly touch base with NAAFA, checking in on our other work and looking for ways for us to continue to partner via other tech industry events and opportunities. Through her dedication–and her willingness to share the stage in spaces where she could’ve shown up alone and had all the attention– we were able to bring NAAFA’s message of fat rights and fat representation to a host of other tech professionals at conferences like 3% Movement and Lesbians Who Tech. The All-In guidelines served exactly the purpose they are meant to serve; they set an advocacy example that had ripple effects beyond Google.
Last week, I was honored to join Melú as Google’s guest at the annual AdColor Conference, which draws hundreds of BIPOC professionals from around the world to honor the work of marketing and creative industry leaders. Melú was nominated for the organization’s prestigious Innovator Award for people who “stand out among their peers as a game changer when it comes to issues of diversity, equity and inclusion” and who “create breakthrough opportunities for people and organizations.”
Of dozens of nominees in a variety of categories, Melú was the only AdColor Award nominee working on fat representation and plus-size inclusion. Melú did not win the AdColor Award (this year!), but her nomination put NAAFA and our cause on the radar of people who have never thought before about size inclusion or about prioritizing body size diversity in their equity and justice work. We look forward to many more opportunities to partner with Google and to work with Melú there and everywhere!